


2016

by FinchelFan728



Category: Glee, The West Wing
Genre: Alternate Universe, Crossover, F/M, Gen, au america
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-11-24
Updated: 2015-11-24
Packaged: 2018-05-03 03:58:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 32,162
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5275652
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FinchelFan728/pseuds/FinchelFan728
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Finchel stuck to no contact after Glease. After Rachel's TV show flopped and the glee club was disbanded, they both lost their confidence. Unknown to each other, they both apply for positions on a presidential campaign. What will happen when they find out they are working together? Is there hope for the campaign - and Finchel? Some characters are borrowed from The West Wing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys! I know it's uncommon to do so many stories at once, but this is an idea I've always had, and sometimes you just have to write a story, so that's what it was like for this story for me. Plus, with an election coming up in the US, I thought now would be a good time :) This story is different from anything I've ever done with Finchel (though I wrote an original fiction story about an election back in high school) and takes place in an alternate world from both Glee and The West Wing. Some things you should know:
> 
> 1\. Obviously, Finn is alive. Finn and Rachel stuck with their no contact rule after Glease, so Rachel didn't come back for Will's wedding or the end of glee club celebration. All events of Season 5 except Finn's death are canon, but since Rachel disappeared after That's So Rachel, the events of Season 6 are not canon.
> 
> 2\. This story also takes place in an alternate universe of the United States and The West Wing. Bartlet was president from 1993 to 2001, Robert Ritchie was president from 2001 to 2009, a Democratic Senator from Illinois from 2009 to 2013, and Vinick was elected in 2012.
> 
> Without further ado, enjoy the first chapter, and review if I should keep going!

Chapter 1: Get Their Confidence Back

"UGH!" Finn groaned. He sat in the living room, watching as the Yankees scored another run in a game against the Indians. Before Finn had a chance to hear what was next, he heard crying on the baby monitor, and walked upstairs to the nursery. His mom had asked him to watch the six-month-old daughter of one of her co-workers tonight while she and Burt went out to dinner with the coworker and he'd agreed to do it. It wasn't like he had anything better to do.

Finn went upstairs with the bottle, scooped the baby out of the crib, and began cradling her. "It's okay, Mommy and Daddy will be home soon."

Watching the baby drink the bottle, Finn thought about how simple life was when you were this young, and how not simple his life was. It was summer of 2015 and a lot had changed. Ever since graduation, things had just gone downhill, and every time life took a step forward, it seemed to immediately take two steps back.

Finn thought he'd make a good name for himself in the army. Sure, he was upset that he hadn't gotten into the college he wanted and that it meant breaking up with Rachel, but he could redeem his dad. Of course, he hadn't even been there a month before he shot himself and got discharged. He hid out in Georgia for a while before going to New York, hoping to fix things up with Rachel, only to find that she'd moved on to a guy who looked like he was made of plastic. Worried it would be too hard to face her, he told her no contact, and she hadn't contacted him since.

Things finally started to get better when he started helping with the glee club while Mr. Schuester was in Washington. Finn enjoyed helping the glee club, but then the glee club was disbanded when they didn't win Nationals. Sure, he was at college now, but he was struggling academically. Academics had always been a struggle for him. After the glee club was disbanded, Mr. Schue got a job at Carmel High, and Coach Sylvester had transferred all the glee club members to other schools, so Finn didn't even have a chance to fall back on the glee club.

Finn's thoughts were interrupted when Carole's friend got home. He took his money and drove home, still feeling down by the events that had happened over the past few years.

"How was babysitting?" Carole asked as Finn came in.

Finn shrugged. "It was fine. She slept most of the time I was there."

"That's what babies do," Carole said.

"Well, I sleep a lot, too," Finn added.

"That's true," Carole admitted. "Maybe too much."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Finn asked.

"Finn, you need to get out and about more," Burt said. "You're always sitting on the couch watching TV or sleeping."

Finn knew that was true, and he was ashamed of that. Still, he wasn't going to let his parents draw attention to it. "That's not true... I work at the tire shop."

"Yeah, you arrive and just go through the motions," Burt said.

Why were his parents choosing tonight of all night to make Finn feel bad about his situation? "I'm fine."

"Finn, honey, we want to see you happy, and you're not very happy," Carole said. "Your brother's well on his way to a career at Vogue..."

Finn couldn't take this anymore. "Haven't you noticed any time I get involved with something it goes to hell?"

"Honey, you haven't tried getting involved with something in over a year..." Carole began.

"Yeah, I'm struggling to get Cs in college, big deal," Finn groaned.

"You just need to get your confidence and focus back," Burt said.

"Well, do you have any ideas on how I can do that?" Finn asked.

"As a matter of fact, I do," Burt said. "One of my friends in congress is running for president and he was telling me the other day that he's hiring staff for his campaign..."

"I know I did some canvassing for you, but I don't think that qualifies me for a job on a campaign," Finn said. Plus, with his luck, Burt's friend would probably lose the election.

"I did tell him that you need a positive outlet in your life and he agreed that you could get that with the campaign," Burt said.

Finn had no idea what he would do. Still, the thought of one of Burt's friends from congress as president was a good one. From 2001 to 2009, the United States had a Republican president who was absolutely terrible. In 2008, a Democratic senator from Illinois was elected president and started to clean things up, but he moved at a slower pace than people would have liked and the country still wasn't in the place people wanted it to be when the 2012 election came around. In 2012, another Republican was elected president, and things were an even bigger mess than they were before, if possible. "Well, our country could use a better president," Finn admitted.

"Yeah, my friend has lots of great ideas, but he's a long shot and he'll need all the help he can get," Burt said. "I'd work for him, but with my health history, I don't think it's a good idea for me to be traveling all over the country."

"Traveling all over the country?" Finn asked.

"Yeah, if you got this job, you'd get to go all over the country on the campaign and meet all sorts of people," Carole said.

"Wow," Finn said. He had to admit, that could be fun.

"Yeah, and like I said, I put in a good word for you with him," Burt added.

"Do you still think he'd hire me?" Finn asked.

x

Finn paced around the office portion of the capitol building. He'd filled out the application and done a background check online and gotten a phone call from someone from the campaign, asking for an interview at the congressman's office in DC. This had just been an idea in theory before, but now this was it. He was really here. Was he going to mess up again? Or would he get his confidence back like he hoped he would?

Finally, about ten minutes (that felt like much longer) after Finn checked in with the secretary, a man who looked like he was in his 30s came out. "Hi, are you Finn?" the man asked.

"Yeah," Finn said.

"Hi, I'm Josh, the campaign manager," the man said. "Let's go into the congressman's office to chat."

"Okay," Finn said. He'd expected the congressman himself, but this was the campaign manager. At least if he said or did something stupid with the campaign manager, it would be less embarrassing than if it happened with the congressman.

When they got into the congressman's office, Finn reached into his bag and pulled out his resume. "So, I have a copy of my resume for you. You probably saw it when I applied online though... I don't know what position would be best for me, but I did do some canvassing and phone calls for my stepdad when he ran for congress..."

"Yeah, I looked at your resume," Josh interrupted. "And I read your cover letter. I'm just going to ask you a few things... can you tell me a little about yourself?"

Now Finn was feeling nervous. No doubt everything he said wold be repeated to the congressman. "Well... I graduated from high school in 2012 and ever since then I've been trying to find my place in the world. I go to University of Lima, but it's been a challenge. When I was in high school, I played football, basketball and baseball, and I was also in the glee club. I was our male lead singer and I played the drums for some of our numbers too, and we won Nationals our senior year." He knew he should probably talk about his post high school life. "After graduation, I was in the army for a while, but I had trouble with handling a gun so I was discharged. I helped out with the glee club that I was in, but then it was disbanded due to lack of funding. Right now I've been working at my stepfather's tire shop. I thought this would be something fun and different to do, and I do care about this country and want it to go in a better direction." He just hoped he hadn't said anything stupid. He didn't know very much about politics. In fact, he was sure he wouldn't have even gotten an interview had it not been a friend of Burt's running for president.

"I see," Josh said. "So, Finn, tell me, what are some things about this country you'd like to change?"

"Well, for one thing, we need to create more jobs," Finn admitted. "I also think we need health care for everyone, and more funding for education, and that gay marriage should be legal in all 50 states."

"You think like the congressman, I see," Josh said. "Now, I was talking with him, and assuming your background check comes back okay, we do have a position for you on the campaign. He looked over your resume as well, and your stepfather put in a good word for you with him."

Finn nodded. He was worried the congressman was just giving him this job because he felt sorry for Finn. Burt knew how unhappy Finn had been since he graduated high school. But this was about getting back into the game, and it would probably look good on his resume... but with his luck, the congressman would probably end up losing the election...

"Are you okay, Finn?" Josh asked.

"Oh, yeah, I'm fine, I just didn't expect to get a job on a presidential campaign," Finn said. If his stepdad wasn't friends with the presidential candidate, he was sure he wouldn't be getting this job. But regardless of the circumstances - he was getting it.

"You seem like a great young man, and for this position, we try to find young people of promise," Josh said. "We were thinking that we'd have you be an aide to the congressman."

An aide? What would he do as an aide? "Can you tell me about that job?" Finn managed to ask.

Josh handed Finn a piece of paper. "Here's a list of what your responsibilities would be. You'll be traveling around the country with him all the time, so it'll be very consuming. You'll need to help with answering calls, talking to voters, making reservations, running errands for him, helping out on the campaign plane with paperwork, stuff like that."

At least Finn didn't think he could screw that up. "That sounds doable." Then he looked at the bottom of the paper. The position would pay $5000 a month.

"You sure you're up to it?" Josh asked. "I've been involved with politics most of my life and it's not an easy business, I'm warning you now. There will be late nights and early mornings. People will be nasty. Your every move will be watched. Anything you do between now and Election Day will reflect on the congressman's campaign, and on the congressman himself."

It wasn't like Finn went out and got drunk or anything like that. "Yeah, I'm sure I'm up to it."

"Well, we'll need you next week," Josh continued. "We'll be hitting the road and the congressman will need you. Like I said, he saw your resume and he gave me the okay. All you need to do is fill out the paperwork."

Finn couldn't believe it. "This soon?"

Josh handed Finn some paperwork. "Well, I told you that things can be unexpected. Just pack about two weeks worth of clothes, you probably won't be getting to do laundry very often."

"Okay," Finn said. Sure, this was a big change, but he was just glad that he'd been offered a job.

x

Rachel was completely miserable.

Every day she mentally beat herself up for doing That's So Rachel. She'd made a complete fool of herself on national television, being on a horrible show with a horrible script. Nearly every media outlet had criticized her and the show, and she'd had to flee LA and go home, only to find out that her dads were divorcing and moving to two separate cities. Right now, Hiram was living in Cleveland and LeRoy was living in Cincinnati. Then again, Rachel's problems had started before That's So Rachel, even if that was the final straw.

It all began after high school graduation. Finn had put her on that train and she spent the summer in New York, feeling like a fish out of water. Then Rachel's first semester at NYADA had been a nightmare. Cassandra July had targeted her and the other kids at NYADA didn't like her. Of course there was Brody - she was lonely, and he was showing interest in her, so she took it. But every time she did something with Brody, she found herself wishing she was doing it with Finn instead. When she went home to Lima for Grease, she'd seen Finn, and she wanted so badly to get back together. But then Cassandra insulted her on the phone and she started crying. Finn assumed she was crying over Brody, and he told her that he didn't think they should contact each other anymore. So Rachel stuck with that, and to this day, she hadn't contacted Finn. But she missed him so much. Not a day went by that she didn't think about him and wonder how he was doing. But he didn't want her to contact him, and she should respect that.

Knowing that Finn didn't want to get back together, Rachel threw herself into things with Brody. She invited him to move in eventually, but he was always out late. Eventually, Santana found some suspicious items, and Rachel, Kurt and Santana discovered that Brody was a gigolo. Since Finn had told Rachel no contact, she didn't return to Lima for Mr. Schue's wedding, even though she wanted to. Now that she didn't even have someone to use as a Finn replacement, she wished so badly that she and Finn could be together again. But Finn didn't want to be together.

Rachel had gotten the part of Fanny Brice, but not without a struggle. Shortly after Rachel got the part, she heard that the glee club had been cut by Principal Sylvester after they placed second at Nationals. Kurt and Santana went back for the farewell program, but Rachel stayed home, even though once again she wanted to.

Rachel threw herself into rehearsals, but she did make some irresponsible decisions. The director was very controlling, and when Rachel pretended to have cut her hair, she nearly got fired. Overwhelmed by school and rehearsal, she decided to drop out of school. And then she got the That's So Rachel offer and quit Funny Girl.

That's So Rachel was probably the worst decision she'd ever made. The Pilot drew criticism from nearly every major group and media outlet and was pulled before it could go to series. Rachel returned home in humiliation, hoping that she could rebuild her life, only to find out that her dads were divorcing and selling her childhood home. Humiliated, Rachel hadn't contacted any of her friends since That's So Rachel. She wouldn't blame them if they didn't want to be her friend anymore, with a show like that in her name.

After That's So Rachel, Rachel couldn't get a job interview, not even at fast food restaurants. She'd been in Cincinnati with LeRoy at first and couldn't find a job there, and now she was in Cleveland with Hiram and hadn't found a job here either. Desperate, she began applying for every job she could find on the internet, some in other cities. Surely someone could find a place for her... right?

So it had been a shock for Rachel when of all things, she'd gotten a phone call from a campaign from an up-and-coming congressman running for president. Rachel had applied for a job on the presidential campaign when she read about him online and thought she liked where he stood on the issues - but she didn't think she'd get a call back when she couldn't even get calls back when she applied to be a hotel room cleaner.

Here she was walking around Union Station in DC, on her way to the Capitol for her interview. As she walked up to the Capitol, she thought of Finn. Burt was in congress, too. Did Burt know this congressman? Had Finn met him?

She couldn't let herself think like this. She finally had a job interview, and she had to make herself look good. Rachel checked in with the receptionist at the Capitol and was escorted up to the congressman's office, where a blond woman was waiting for her. "You're Rachel Berry?" the woman asked. "I'm Anna, I'm the deputy campaign manager."

"Hi," Rachel said, finding herself getting nervous. "Yeah, I'm Rachel." At least this woman hadn't said anything about That's So Rachel. If Rachel got this job, maybe it could help her get some self esteem back.

"I'm sorry the campaign manager couldn't meet with you today, but he had to go to a press conference with the congressman," Anna said. "But both the congressman and the campaign manager looked at your resume..."

Oh no. What did they think? Were they disqualifying her from That's So Rachel? "Well, I've never done anything like this before," Rachel managed to say. "But I've always cared about lots of the issues that are going to be issues in this election, and I think the congressman has good ideas."

"Well, we definitely got that idea in your cover letter, Rachel," Anna said. "So, what are some issues that are important to you?"

"Well, I was really involved in the arts at my high school and arts funding is being cut from public schools across the country, and I think that needs to stop," Rachel said. "I was also raised by gay parents, and it's important to me that gay marriage become legal in all 50 states."

"Have you ever been involved with a campaign before?" Anna asked.

Yes. She had. She'd helped Finn campaign for Burt. Bt that was a soft spot. "I did some canvassing when my friend's dad was running for office when I was in high school, but other than that, I didn't. Part of what appealed to me about this was it would be something different." She took a deep breath. "After graduating high school, my life's been all over the place, and I think doing something new and different would be a good thing. We can work for a brighter America," she said, using the campaign slogan.

"Well, from talking with the congressman and the campaign manager, we were thinking of hiring you to be an aide on the campaign," Anna told Rachel. "We can tell you're special by looking over your resume. We hired another aide as well and he's also from Ohio. This is a position we typically give to young people. You'll help make arrangements for the congressman, run errands for us, do some canvassing, stuff like that. There will be challenges. It's a difficult thing to do emotionally and physically, but I can tell you it'll be worth it." She handed Rachel some paperwork.

Rachel couldn't believe it. She was being offered a job. Part of her couldn't help but wonder if she was being offered this job because the congressman and his staff felt sorry for her, but at least she had a job. Someone was willing to take a chance on her. And it felt so good. "Wow, thank you so much!"

"You'll need to be back here in DC to hit the road next week," Anna told Rachel. "Is that okay with you?"

Of course it was okay. She was finally going to be doing something productive with herself. She finally hadn't been rejected for a job.

After some more discussions about the job, Rachel started to leave the capitol. As she walked toward the elevator, she noticed an office with a familiar name on it that she hadn't noticed on her way in: Burt Hummel. She didn't expect Burt's office to be on this floor. She would have thought the offices would be sorted alphabetically, or by state.

She almost considered knocking on the door and saying hi. She missed Finn. She missed Kurt. She missed Burt and Carole. She hoped that they were doing well.

Then she heard the elevator beep. It was here. She put her nostalgic thoughts out of her head. For the first time since That's So Rachel, someone was showing confidence in her. And it felt so good.


	2. Three Years Later

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In this chapter, Finchel see each other again, and this is my first time writing them talking for the first time after so long, but I like to think I did well. This is also my first time using characters from another show in a glee fic, so we'll see how that goes. Anyway, hope you guys enjoy this chapter and review if I should keep going!

Chapter 2: Three Years Later

"You know that you can always call us if you want to come home, right?" Carole asked. Today was the day. Finn was off to DC to take off for the campaign. He didn't know when he'd be home again. He wasn't even sure where he'd be at this time next week.

"Mom, I'll be fine," Finn said as he paced around the airport. True, he was nervous. But he was just glad to have something meaningful in his life again.

Burt was clearly trying to lighten the mood. "You know your new boss happens to be one of my best friends in congress, so if you try to get up to anything, he'll call me."

Finn managed to laugh. "I won't cause any trouble, I promise." He looked down at his suitcase, which he'd already adorned with a campaign bumper sticker.

"I always worry about Burt and it's just a congressional campaign for him," Carole said. "This is a big, high profile presidential campaign. I don't want people to hurt you..."

"Mom, I handled Sue Sylvester," Finn reassured his mom. "I think I can handle anything. You were all for me going..."

"I guess now that you're actually leaving, it's hitting me that you'll be gone," Carole sighed. "I know you lived in the dorms on campus, but it was close enough to meet you for lunch. Both our boys out in the world..." She looked at Burt.

Finn smiled. Kurt had been thrilled when he heard about Finn's new job and so happy for Finn. His one precondition was that Finn would get time off to come to his and Blaine's wedding after they both had graduated from NYADA. "I won't have to worry about getting Kurt and Blaine's votes."

"Anyone else know what you're doing?" Burt asked.

"I told my friends, they're happy for me," Finn said.

An announcement came up over the airport. "Flight 717 to Washington DC Boarding."

"That's my flight," Finn said. He leaned in and hugged his mom.

"You take care of yourself, okay honey?" Carole asked.

Finn smiled as he kissed his mom on the cheek. "I will." He then leaned over and gave Burt a hug. "Thanks for putting in a good word for me."

"Hey, he hired you because he knows you're special," Burt said. "Go get 'em."

Finn waved to his parents as he took off to catch the plane. "You can do this," he told himself. He thought back to the various congress dinners he'd been to with Burt and Carole. He was pretty sure he'd met the man who he was campaigning for at one of them and that he'd been nice, and that was the closest to having someone he knew.

The plane took off. There was no turning back now.

x

"Are you sure this is going to work?" LeRoy asked Rachel on the phone. "I think Bob Russell has a better shot at beating President Vinick than Matt Santos..."

"Daddy, you should just be glad that I was able to get a job after That's So Rachel," Rachel sighed. It turned out both her dads were planning to vote for a different presidential candidate in the Democratic primaries. While Hiram was glad that Rachel had gotten a job, LeRoy did seem slightly disappointed.

"Well, I don't like our president, but..." LeRoy began.

Rachel groaned. This wasn't how she wanted to spend her goodbye phone call. She was leaving for DC today and she didn't know when she'd even be back in Ohio. She'd met up with LeRoy for lunch before she left, but most of the week had been spent getting ready to leave. Now Hiram was taking her to the airport. "We want to get that man the country elected president unseated, don't we?"

"Yeah," LeRoy admitted.

Hiram looked over at Rachel. "Rachel, we're here."

Rachel nodded, then turned back to her phone. "Daddy, I'm at the airport. I'll text you when I get to DC, okay?"

"Okay, bye baby," LeRoy said before hanging up the phone.

"What was your father doing?" Hiram asked.

Rachel could tell animosity existed between her dads still. "He was just giving me a hard time for working for a candidate who isn't his first choice."

"Well, Rachel, I recognize that this is your choice, not his," Hiram said. "And I know you'll do great things for that campaign."

Rachel felt good to hear that, but at the same time, she knew this was another round of what had been going on since her dads got divorced: both constantly tried to prove to her that he was a better dad. "Thanks. I'm going to miss you."

"I'm going to miss you, too," Rachel said.

Hiram leaned over and gave Rachel a hug. "Let me know when you get there."

Rachel gave her dad a hug. "I will." She took her suitcase and walked to the plane, hoping she wouldn't screw this up. As Rachel sat on the plane, she wished she could call one of her friends to tell them that she'd gotten a job, that her life was finally getting back on track. But after That's So Rachel, she'd deleted all her social media accounts and had her phone number changed. She wasn't even sure where most of her friends were now. She had to admit, she regretted cutting off contact with everyone.

Once she landed in DC, this was going to be the real thing. This was bigger than anything that she'd ever done. She was going to have far more scrutiny than she had in Funny Girl or That's So Rachel - and this time around, they weren't probably going to be as forgiving. Would people recognize her name if they saw it in the papers? She'd always wanted everyone to know her name. People knew it because she'd made a fool out of herself. Could this be a chance to redeem herself? She hoped so.

"Attention. We are now landing in Washington DC."

Rachel picked up her suitcase. Here she was. She knew that someone from the campaign would be meeting her at the airport. Everything would work out, right?

x

Finn got off the plane and walked around the airport. He knew that he'd be picked up by someone with the campaign and then go over to the campaign's new DC office to meet with the congressman before taking off tomorrow. Where were they going tomorrow? Finn didn't even know.

Feeling a little tired from the flight, Finn stopped at an airport concession stand to get a drink. Realizing he wanted to get on the congressman's good side, he picked up another water bottle, too. After all, he'd be running errands for the man, why not buy him a drink from the beginning?

As Finn walked around more, he finally saw the campaign manager who'd interviewed him last week. "Hey Finn," Josh said. "How was your flight?"

"It was good," Finn said. "Not too bad."

"So, we're picking up the other aide, too," Josh said. "Her flight should be here in ten minutes or so. We also thought it would be good for you to meet her, since you two will be spending lots of time together."

Her? The other aide was a her? "Yeah, that'd be great," Finn said. Finn couldn't help but think - what would Rachel think of him spending so much time all over the country with another girl? He and Rachel had always wanted to go all over the world together... he couldn't let himself think like that. Rachel hadn't contacted him after he told her no contact. He'd wanted to go see her in Funny Girl. He'd watched That's So Rachel and been embarrassed for her... He tried to get his mind off things. "So, where are we headed to first?" Finn asked Josh.

Josh's answer hit a chord with Finn. "New York. We're leaving in two days... spending a little bit of time here to get things ready..."

An announcement came over the loudspeaker. "Flight 716 arriving from Cleveland."

"That's the flight the other aide's on," Josh told Finn. "Let's get over to the gate."

Finn nodded and walked over to the gate. Cleveland. The other aide was from Cleveland. Another Ohioan. Finn watched as people walked off the plane before he heard Josh say, "There she is, I recognize her from the photos..." Not thinking, Finn followed Josh over as he scanned the airport. Then hearing Josh's words interrupted Finn's thoughts. "Hi, you're Rachel? I'm Josh, the campaign manager for the Santos for President campaign..."

Finn gulped. It was her. Standing an arm's length away from him was Rachel. Finn barely managed to speak. "Rachel..."

x

"Yeah, I'm Rachel," Rachel said as she shook hands with the campaign manager before she looked at who was standing next to him. "Finn..."

"Oh, you two have already met?" Josh asked.

Rachel was having trouble breathing. She never thought she'd see Finn again. Yet he was right here. "Yeah... we've met..."

"That's good, because like I was telling Finn, you two will be spending lots of time together," Josh said.

Rachel didn't know what to say. What was he talking about? "Wait," Finn said. "Rachel, you're working on the Santos campaign?"

"Yeah, I'm an aide," Rachel said. "You're working on the campaign too?"

"I am," Finn said. "I'm an aide, too."

Finn was working on this campaign, too? Rachel didn't know what to do or say... not with one of her supervisors in front of them. She looked at Finn. He was wearing a polo and a pair of khakis, and he looked like he'd lost some weight. He had the same dimples though, and he still had 'the fin.'

"Now that I think about it, I do think your resumes said you went to the same high school," Josh commented.

"Yeah, we did," Finn said. "We haven't seen each other in years though."

Rachel was glad Finn had decided to leave their history out of the conversation. Rachel wasn't sure if she wanted to break down or not. She'd missed Finn so much and dreamed of reuniting with him... but she never imagined that the day they reunited would be so awkward.

"You two ready to go?" Josh asked. "We've got to get to the office."

"Yeah," Finn and Rachel said at the same time. Even after all these years, to some extent, they were still in sync.

x

The ride to the office from the airport was quiet. Finn kept looking over at Rachel. What had she been doing since That's So Rachel? He was glad to see she was dressed in a more classic Rachel Berry way - she was in a blue and green plaid dress, not one of those short black dresses she wore a lot in New York. She was pretty as ever.

Finn didn't expect Rachel to get involved with a political campaign. After all, she lived and breathed performing. Surely someone would have hired Rachel even after that TV show flopped, right?

"Are you two okay?" Josh asked from the driver's seat. "You're being pretty quiet back there."

"Jet lag," Finn and Rachel both said at the same time. Once again, they'd said the same thing at the same time. Finn was amazed that they still thought alike.

"Don't worry, you'll get used to it, we do a lot of traveling," Josh said. "Anyway, we're here."

Finn looked out the window to see a building with a huge sign that said "Matt Santos for President." He'd never seen a campaign office like this before - Burt's congressional literature was always passed out at schools and stores, and they'd rent a place to store the literature. As they walked inside, Finn looked at Rachel, trying to get the nerve to say something. "So... how've you been?" he managed to say.

"I'm fine," Rachel said. "I'm just glad they hired me..."

"What do you mean?" Finn asked.

"No one would hire me after That's So Rachel," Rachel said quietly, clearly hoping no one else would hear. All over the office, there were people on computers and phones, with campaign signs taped everywhere. "I applied for every job I could find online. I thought he would be a good president from reading about him online, so I figured I'd apply... and here I am." She gave Finn a small smile, and Finn felt some of the tension go away. "What about you?"

"The congressman's friends with Burt, so Burt suggested I apply," Finn said. He wasn't sure if he wanted to tell Rachel about how difficult the past few years had been. Why did this have to be so awkward? For years he'd been wanting to see Rachel again and now they were both struggling to find things to say.

"You two can sit down here while we wait for the congressman to get back," Josh told Finn and Rachel. He handed them each some papers. "Here's some information for you two."

"Thanks," Finn said. He then realized he hadn't texted his parents yet. He sent them a text saying he was in DC, then texted the person he knew would get how he was feeling. He sent a text to Kurt: "Guess who the other aide is?"

x

Looking at the documents in the folder, Rachel kept stealing glances at Finn. She managed to speak again. "So, if he's friends with Burt, have you met him before?"

"Yeah, at a congress dinner," Finn said. "He was nice, from what I remember."

"That's good," Rachel managed to say. "Like I said, doing my research online, I was going to vote for him in the primaries anyway."

"It's kind of weird, how you and I are working for a guy who might end up being the president," Finn said, giving Rachel a half smile.

"I know," Rachel said.

Finally, Josh came in with the presidential candidate himself. "Sir, this is Finn Hudson and Rachel Berry, your new aides."

Rachel had to admit, she was feeling a little uneasy right now. She was standing in front of a guy who might end up being president. "Hi," she managed to say, holding out her hand.

The congressman took her hand and shook it. "Hi, nice to meet you." He turned to Finn. "Good to see you again, I remember you from the congress dinner."

"Yeah, good to see you again, too," Finn said, shaking hands and then reaching into his bag. "I got you some water. I know that it's probably not very cold by now... but you're doing a lot of talking and some water would be a good thing."

Rachel realized Finn hadn't changed. That was definitely a Finn type thing to do. "Well, thank you Finn..."

"I made cookies for you," Rachel said, suddenly remembering. She reached into her bag and got out the box, handing them to the candidate.

"Rachel makes good cookies," Finn said as Rachel smiled over at him. At least Finn didn't seem completely uncomfortable.

"You've had her cookies?" the congressman asked.

"Yeah, we went to high school together," Rachel said. She didn't want the man who would (hopefully) be the president to think she and Finn were unstable, so they could let him think that they just went to high school together. "We didn't even know we were both going to be working on this campaign."

"Well, I could tell that both of you are what this campaign needs from looking at your resumes," Santos told Finn and Rachel. "You two excited to go to New York this week?"

Rachel couldn't help but wonder, would she run into Kurt or Blaine there? Or Sam or Artie or Mercedes or Santana or Brittany? "Yeah," Rachel managed to say.

"Me too," Finn added.

It did make Rachel feel somewhat good that Finn seemed to be acting similar to how she was. They were in a room with a man who might end up being president, and Rachel was afraid to say much of anything in fear of saying something stupid. Luckily, the man himself spoke. "So, can you two tell me a little about yourselves? You'll be with me throughout the entire campaign, I should know about you. What do you guys like?"

No. Rachel didn't want to talk about That's So Rachel. Luckily, Finn spoke first, talking about football and leading the glee club to a national title and teaching the glee club. Finally, Rachel spoke. "He and I both led our glee club to a national title, we were the leads of the club," she said proudly.

"So you two knew each other pretty well?" Santos asked.

"Yeah, we kind of fell out of touch after high school," Finn said.

Rachel took a deep breath. "It is nice to see Finn again, though."

Another campaign staff member came in. "Sorry to take you away from our newest additions, but the New York Times is on the phone and they need a quote from you for an article that's due tomorrow..."

Santos looked over at Finn and Rachel. "You guys were warned, a million things happen at once here."

"Yeah, we were warned," Finn said. "Nice to see you again, sir."

"Yeah, nice to meet you, Congressman," Rachel added.

"We'll be saying Mr. President by the end of this," Finn added.

"He always tells us to call him Matt," the other staffer said.

"And that includes you two," Santos told Finn and Rachel. "I'll be back soon to go over the next few days with you guys, but I've got to take this call."

When Finn and Rachel were alone in the room again, Rachel felt the uneasiness coming back. Why did seeing Finn again have to be so complicated? Why couldn't they have just run into each other's arms and picked up from where they left off at graduation?

x

The campaign was going to New York first. Finn hadn't been to New York since that visit back in October 2012, when he and Rachel had their final breakup. He would always come up with an excuse to avoid going when his parents went to visit Kurt. There were too many reminders there. Finn wasn't sure if he was up to going back to New York. But he had to act professional now. He'd been doing well enough with Rachel sitting right next to him. He'd feel comfortable one minute and uncomfortable the next... why did love have to make things complicated? He was only fooling himself if he said he wasn't still in love with Rachel. The man running for president himself had given them one of those looks Finn was all too familiar with - Finn knew that Matt Santos knew something was there between him and Rachel. And Finn was glad she was here, he just wished that things could be easier.

"You were right, he's nice," Rachel managed to say.

"Yeah," Finn said. "So, ready for our campaign event in New York?"

"Well, I know we'll end up winning New York in the real election, so I don't know if New York's necessary for our first big campaign event," Rachel said.

Rachel still had optimism. Finn felt himself turned on. "Well, Vinick won New York in 2012..."

"I prefer to pretend that election didn't happen," Rachel groaned.

"Don't we all," Finn said. "But I have a feeling this one will be better."

"Yeah, me too," Rachel said. They both began looking at campaign literature, but not without stealing glances at each other without the other one knowing it.


	3. New York

Chapter 3: New York

The campaign senior staff had been right - this was a very busy job.

Finn lay in his bed in the DC hotel. He'd gotten up at 6 this morning to go to a press conference where the congressman was announcing his new hires. For the first time in his life, he'd needed to speak to newspaper reporters - and it made him jittery than he thought it would. What if he said the wrong thing? He wasn't fired after the press conference, so that was something.

The morning was spent tagging along to shoot campaign ads. Finn and Rachel were the only staff members who went along, in case their candidate needed them to run any errands. Finn was still not sure if he could talk to Rachel, so he mostly watched the ads being shot. He had to admit - the ads seemed pretty good and he liked the messages of them.

Finn and Rachel also had to make arrangements for appearances over the next two weeks. Josh had given them a list of cities to visit, and they'd put together a schedule that had the campaign stopping in 18 states over the next two weeks. Finn hadn't even been to 18 states in his life, but he had a feeling by Election Day, he'd have been to all 50.

Most of the rest of the day was spent doing campaign paperwork and making phone calls, trying to find typical Democratic voters who'd be willing to volunteer for the campaign. Even though the Iowa Caucus was about five months away, signs for the Democratic candidates were beginning to appear - and there were a lot more Russell signs than Santos signs. At least in the parts of the country Finn had seen.

Later in the day, Finn went out to dinner with some of the other campaign staff members. It was a good thing the campaign paid for all their meals, because Finn knew there was no way he could keep affording three meals out a day. Rachel had not gone out on this dinner, and Finn almost considered telling the other staffers about their history and how surprised he was to see her again. But then he decided that he should keep a professional image here. If something with Rachel was meant to happen, it would happen on its own... right?

Whether it happened on its own or Finn and Rachel would make something happen, Finn knew that his feelings for Rachel hadn't gone away. He was happy to see her again... he just needed to get up the nerve to have a real conversation about the last three years with her.

Finn's thoughts were interrupted when his phone rang. He looked at the Caller ID. It was Kurt. He picked up the phone. "Hey!"

"Finn, you sent me a 'guess who the other aide is' text yesterday and I've tried calling you, but you still haven't told me," Kurt said. "Who is it?"

"Rachel," Finn said.

"What?" Kurt gasped. "Rachel Berry?"

"Yeah," Finn said.

"Holy crap!" Kurt rambled. "Rachel Berry - working on a presidential campaign? So that's what she's doing... I haven't seen or heard from her since That's So Rachel..."

"None of us have," Finn said. "Well, I hadn't in three years..."

"How is she?" Kurt asked.

"She's being shy, which isn't even Rachel-like," Finn admitted. "She said that no one's hired her since That's So Rachel, so she was surprised she got this job."

"Well, as much as it sucks, I have a bad feeling Vinick's going to get re-elected..." Kurt began.

"Hey, Santos has me and Rachel working for him!" Finn interrupted. "I think that's a good thing."

"Yeah, of course it is," Kurt said. "So, how is the new job?"

"It's busy, but I do like it," Finn said. "It feels good to be part of something special again. The other people on the campaign are cool, and I think Santos is the man this country needs as a leader... he has great ideas. And of course, it's good to have Rachel here..."

"You sound kind of tired," Kurt said.

"I am tired, I had a full day, and tomorrow we're headed to New York, we have our first big rally," Finn explained. "There's going to be other big names there..."

"Look at you, mingling with famous people," Kurt said. "I just wish I could come if I didn't have to work at the diner."

"That sucks," Finn said.

"Can you ask Rachel to call me?" Kurt asked. "I really miss her."

"Yeah, of course," Finn said.

"Well, I'm really happy for you, Finn," Kurt said. "This is the best you've sounded in years, even if you are tired."

"I'm just glad to have some purpose in my life again," Finn admitted.

"Call me next time you guys are in New York, okay?" Kurt asked.

"I will," Finn said.

"And Finn -" Kurt began. "Don't rush things with Rachel. Take it slow. Everything will work out."

"I know," Finn said. He didn't intend to move too quickly. He did hope that things would work out, though...

x

Rachel heard her alarm go off. Yesterday had been one of the busiest days of her life, but it was fun, too. She'd never done anything like this before, and maybe that was why yesterday was the first day she hadn't felt self-pity since That's So Rachel.

The other campaign staff were nice. She and Finn were definitely the youngest staff members, but there were other people in their late twenties or their thirties. She and Finn had spent most of the day together, but in the evening she'd gone out to dinner with some of the other female campaign staff members. And she was definitely glad when the campaign stylist approved all her clothes - she didn't want another bad Vogue type makeover.

Rachel went downstairs for breakfast, where she saw Finn sitting at one table with some other staff members. Some of the girls she'd gone out with last night were there, so she took a seat. "Hey."

"You sleep well?" Finn asked Rachel.

"Yeah, did you?" Rachel asked.

"Yeah," Finn said.

"Well, good thing," one of the guys named Bram said. "You two got your initiation on how busy this gets yesterday."

"We did," Finn said. "But I'll admit, I like being busy."

"Good," said another girl named Louise. "Because we're going to be busy all the time between now and Election Day."

"If we make it past the primaries," Rachel said.

"Oh, come on," Finn said. "We're going to wipe the floor with everyone else in the primaries, and then we'll unseat Vinick in November."

"Well, aren't you optimistic?" asked one of the guys, Otto.

Rachel had to admit - she was still turned on by Finn's optimism. "Hey, I was joking. Of course we'll get past the primaries." The primaries were a few months away. She couldn't let herself get nervous. At least not yet.

"Have you two been to New York before?" asked one of the other staff members, a girl named Ronna.

Rachel paused. Of course she and Finn had been to New York. That was the site of some of their best memories - and some of their worst memories. "Yeah, I went to college there," Rachel said. She didn't want to talk about her Broadway run just yet. The campaign had hired her even after seeing her resume, but her unprofessional behavior was not something she was proud of.

"When we were in high school, the National championships for our glee club were held there our junior year," Finn said.

Yes they were. That had been one of the best weekends of Rachel's life. The date, the kiss, singing that amazing song Finn wrote for them... back then, everything felt so right.

"So you two can sing?" one of the staff members named Amy asked. "Just to warn you then, the congressman likes having live music at his rallies, so he may have you two sing at some point."

Rachel would like to sing with Finn again. But would he be willing to sing with her?

x

The bus ride from DC to New York took faster than Finn thought it would. He did have his nerves about going back to New York about everything that happened there, but he knew that it was important for the campaign to spend lots of time in the states that had gone Democratic in 2008 and Republican in 2012 - New York, California, Ohio, Iowa, Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico, Virginia, North Carolina, Florida and Indiana.

When the bus arrived in New York, Finn noticed a piece of information he must have missed at meetings - the rally was being held in Central Park. The speech would be made on Bow Bridge, of all places.

That was where the date had began... the best date of Finn's life. Finn wondered how Rachel felt about being back at Central Park and Bow Bridge. Trying to distract himself, Finn went up to the congressman, hoping for a task to take his mind off things. "Sir, is there anything I can get for you?"

"Is this the new aide you were telling me about?" a blond woman Finn didn't recognize asked.

"Yeah, this is Finn," Santos said. "Finn, this is my wife, Helen. And I don't need anything right now. You excited to be in New York?"

Finn forced a smile. "Yeah. I've been here before - when I was a junior in high school, my show choir had their national championships here in New York. Rachel and I sang the duet and were leads in the group number and we finished in the top fifteen." Finn couldn't believe he'd just said that. He'd told himself that he wouldn't talk too much about his history with Rachel, but it all just came out. To the potential president and first lady, nonetheless.

"Rachel being the other aide?" Mrs. Santos asked.

"Yeah," Finn said.

Josh came over to Finn. "Finn, can you and Rachel maybe hand these signs out to some of the people in the crowd?" He handed Finn a stack of signs.

"Yeah, sure," Finn said.

"Where's Rachel?" Josh asked.

Sure enough, then Rachel came in with two young kids. The boy looked about eight and the girl looked about five. "Mommy, this is Rachel, she works for Daddy," the girl said to Mrs. Santos. "She was listening to Let It Go with me, and she knows all the words, and she can sing it better than Elsa!"

Finn had a feeling that Rachel's version of that song would be better than the original. He had to crack out one of his half smiles. "Rachel's a really good singer."

"Well, apparently, so are you, if you two could win a national show choir championship," Santos said. "Would you two ever be willing to sing at a rally?"

Finn paused. He would love to sing with Rachel again... but would she be willing to sing with him? "Yeah, maybe sometime," Finn managed to say.

"Sir, I almost forgot to tell you, the guy who was going to sing at today's rally got a throat infection and can't perform," Josh said. "I was thinking we could just play our records for longer..."

No live entertainment for the first big rally? Maybe Finn could sing with Rachel today... but would she be willing to? "Well, if it's okay with Finn, I guess we could go on today..."

"Great! I was planning to have the singer do 'Don't Stop Believing' right before my speech, do you two know that song?" Santos asked.

Did they know that song? Yes. They did. But it was better to not talk about the history that song had with them. "Yeah, we sang it in glee club once," Finn said. "If we're going to sing at the rally, maybe we should get these signs handed out."

"Yeah," Rachel said, turning to the Santos family. "Nice to meet you."

"You too," Mrs. Santos said before Finn and Rachel headed toward the crowd.

As Finn and Rachel began handing out the "Matt Santos for president" signs, Finn turned to Rachel. "Don't Stop Believing, huh?"

"Yeah, at least it's a song we know that we have to sing last minute," Rachel said.

"We can be thankful for that," Finn said. "The first full song we ever sang together."

"I know, it's crazy," Rachel said. "The weird thing is, other than singing along to Let It Go just now, I haven't even sang on my own time since That's So Rachel..."

Finn couldn't believe it. That wasn't the Rachel Berry he knew. "What?"

"Yeah," Rachel said. "You know, That's So Rachel really hurt my self-esteem... and I was pretty down all the time."

"But you're an amazing singer," Finn told Rachel.

"I thought I was a good actress too," Rachel said. "I wouldn't be surprised if no one ever hired me again after That's So Rachel. I'm just glad they were willing to take a chance on me here."

"I'm lucky they were willing to hire me," Finn said. "I haven't done much with myself since the glee club was disbanded."

Finn and Rachel began handing out the signs to the people in the crowd when they heard a familiar voice. "Well, it's Finchel."

Finn and Rachel both turned and saw Santana and Brittany. Finn knew this was the first time that Rachel had seen anyone from back home other than him since That's So Rachel. "Hey," Finn said.

"Rachel's still alive?" Brittany asked.

"Yeah, you still exist," Santana said to Rachel. "Where have you been? And what are you two up to?"

"We work for Matt Santos now, we're campaign aides," Finn said. "I was surprised when I showed up to start and she was here."

"Yeah, this isn't the type of job I'd expect you to get, Berry," Santana said.

"It's the only job I could get," Rachel said. "No one would hire me after the TV show."

"That show was weird," Brittany said.

"Everyone makes mistakes," Rachel admitted.

"So, where have you been?" Santana asked Rachel.

"I was living with my dads in Cincinnati and Cleveland," Rachel said.

Finn noticed that Rachel was uncomfortable. "We should probably finish getting these signs handed out. Good to see you guys."

"You too," said Brittany as Finn and Rachel left.

x

Rachel had been nervous to be going back to New York. She didn't expect to see people she knew at the rally, though she guessed anything was possible. And singing with Finn again? After all these years? She was sure their voices would still sound good together... but she wasn't sure if she felt ready to do it. She couldn't talk about her and Finn's history. At least not yet.

"Wow, we managed to get rid of all those signs," Finn said, interrupting Rachel's thoughts. "I wasn't sure if that many people would be here today... I mean, he's consistently been trailing Russell in the polls..."

"Yeah, both my dads are voting for Russell," Rachel groaned.

"Hopefully we can convince them to do otherwise," Finn said.

"Yeah, I hope," Rachel said as she and Finn got backstage. A few local officials spoke to get the crowd riled up - and then it was time for Finn and Rachel to go on stage. Their first time singing together in three years. They would be singing right before the candidate himself came on stage, so they had to get the crowd excited. After their performance, Finn and Rachel had to announce that "the next president of the United States" was coming on stage.

Rachel felt her nerves working up as the music began. What if someone recognized her as the girl who made a fool out of herself on That's So Rachel, or the girl who left Broadway after a month. The last thing she needed to do was to give someone a reason to vote against her candidate... or get fired when she finally had a job...

But the music was starting, and she and Finn stepped on stage. To Rachel's relief, the crowd was cheering and waving their signs, and she and Finn sounded just as good as they did the first time they sang this song together six years ago.

Finn: Just a small town girl

Livin' in a lonely world

She took the midnight train goin' anywhere

Rachel: Just a city boy

Born and raised in south Detroit

He took the midnight train goin' anywhere

Finn: A singer in a smoky room

Rachel: A smell of wine and cheap perfume

Finn and Rachel: For a smile they can share the night

It goes on and on and on and on

Strangers waiting

Up and down the boulevard

Their shadows searching in the night

Streetlights people

Living just to find emotion

Hiding somewhere in the night

Rachel: Working hard to get my fill

Everybody wants a thrill

Finn and Rachel: Payin' anything to roll the dice just one more time

Rachel: Some will win

Finn and Rachel: Some will lose

Some were born to sing the blues

Oh, the movie never ends

It goes on and on and on and on

Strangers waiting

Up and down the boulevard

Their shadows searching in the night

Streetlight people

Living just to find emotion

Hiding somewhere in the night

Finn and Rachel: Don't stop believin'

Hold on to that feelin'

Streetlight people

Don't stop believin'

Hold on to that feelin'

Streetlight people

Don't stop!

At the end of the song, Rachel got the loudest applause she'd ever gotten, and it felt so good to know that people were still willing to cheer for her. She grabbed her microphone, ready to make her introduction. "Hello, New York! Is everyone having fun today?"

The crowd cheered again, and Rachel let Finn take over. "Are you all excited to be here?" Finn asked as the crowd got even louder. "Well, please join us in welcoming the next president of the United States, Matt Santos!"

The crowd erupted as Finn and Rachel exited Bow Bridge together to go wait with the other campaign staff and listen to the speech. Singing with Finn again had been fun, and Rachel leaned up to Finn and whispered, "We sounded good, don't you think?"

"Yeah," Finn said.

Rachel couldn't believe she and Finn had done that - sang together again, when she never thought they would. She was feeling awkward and not knowing what to say again, but for three minutes on that bridge, things felt like the good old days.

"If this is anything like the real thing, I think we can get New York," Finn said. "I mean, look at all these people!"

"Yeah, I've never seen so many people," Rachel agreed.

"I was thinking, we should be able to get all the top five most populated states," Finn said. "Look at this crowd here, we'll get New York back. Then tomorrow we'll be in California, I think we can get it back, I heard Senator Seaborn is going to be at our rally in California tomorrow and he's supposed to be influential with the people there. Santos is from Texas, if they can elect him to congress, they can elect him president. Florida may be a traditional swing state, but I think we can do it. And the Democrats won Illinois in 2012, so we can keep it."

Rachel had to smile at Finn's optimism. Did he have this whole thing planned out? "Well, let's do this."

"Let's do this," Finn said.

x

Finn had enjoyed singing with Rachel at the rally, but he remembered what Kurt had told him: not to rush into things. They'd broken up three times before, and it had been painful each time. Now that they were working together, it would complicate things, but Finn could handle his feelings - right?

Finn tried to put the thoughts out of his head as he listened to the speech. At the end of the speech, the campaign staff applauded as their candidate came backstage. Then came an announcement he wasn't sure if he was up to.

Tonight, the campaign staff was going to Sardi's for dinner as a campaign kickoff and to celebrate the first successful rally.

Sardi's. Was there some sort of conspiracy to trigger Finn and Rachel? Central Park, Bow Bridge and Sardi's were their special places in New York. In fact, Kurt had told Finn that sometimes Rachel would go to Sardi's and Central Park (specifically Bow Bridge) if she needed time to herself.

This was crazy.

"You're a really good singer," a voice said, interrupting Finn's thoughts.

Finn turned to the female campaign employee in front of him. "Thanks."

"So is that Rachel girl," the female employee continued.

Yes she was. And Finn knew that. He felt his phone vibrate, and looked and saw a message from his mom. "Burt and I watched the rally on livestream. You and Rachel had a great performance."

His parents had seen the performance? Finn guessed he couldn't be surprised. Burt was friends with Santos. Finn texted back. "Thanks, but I don't know if this'll be a regular thing. The person who was originally going to sing got sick." He liked singing with Rachel again. But at the same time, it made him a little uneasy. He couldn't rush things. There was no way to know if Rachel was comfortable or not. It was weird enough having Rachel here and having to fight his feelings. And this wasn't high school anymore, where you could make a fool out of yourself and have it be forgotten within a few days.

Finn got on the campaign bus to go to Sardi's. He'd felt comfortable singing with Rachel, but now again, things felt weird. When the bus arrived at Sardi's, Finn's mind flashed back to that night in New York. She'd worn that pretty blue dress. He'd gotten her flowers. She'd talked about how one day, a cartoon of her would be on those walls. She probably thought there wouldn't be now after That's So Rachel - but he hoped there would.

What was Rachel thinking now? Finn wanted to know. At least he knew that the food was good. And he was pretty hungry.

x

Today had been even fuller than yesterday. Rachel was glad to be back in the hotel room to go to sleep. After all, the campaign was headed out to California tomorrow, and there was no doubt that tomorrow would be crazy, too. At least the crazy kept her busy though. She knew it hadn't been productive of her to sit around the house moping after That's So Rachel.

She'd had her first public performance in years today, and she had to admit, it felt so good to be up there and sing again. It was made even better that she was singing with Finn. He'd been smiling at her - giving her those famous half smiles. Those smiles still gave her the tingles. But the performance didn't solve everything - Finn and Rachel had trouble finding the things to say to each other.

Rachel had told Santos and Josh that if it was okay, she didn't want to sing at a rally for a while. She didn't want to say the real reason, but she said it was because her throat was feeling sore. Both her bosses said she and Finn had the best voices they'd ever heard, but were understanding. Being on Bow Bridge reminded her of things - of the easy times for her and Finn. It made her wish that she'd never broken up with him. When she lived in New York, she'd come here to feel close to him. She'd wanted him back. Now he was back in her life, but things weren't the same as before.

Then there was the dinner at Sardi's. Another reminder of what she and Finn used to have. She remembered their date, when she'd told Finn that one day, there would be a cartoon of her on these walls. Now she doubted there would be. At least she hadn't done anything on the campaign trail yet to get a political cartoon mocking her in the newspaper.

She wasn't here to fret over things. She was here to get back in the game, get her focus back and get her candidate in the White House. She couldn't let her feelings get in the way.

Maybe tomorrow would be less complicated. After all, they were going to be in California, and she and Finn didn't have memories there.


	4. Meeting The Rivals

Chapter 4: Meeting The Rivals

Rachel stood in front of the mirror near the hotel pool and rubbed her ear with the solution she'd gotten at Claire's, still wondering if this had been a good idea. Today was the first day off in nearly a week, and she'd decided to go out with some of the other female campaign workers. (They were in a small town in Colorado, it's not like there was much else to do besides shopping.) While out, she'd decided to get her cartilage pierced. It was a little sore, but she had to admit, she liked how it looked. Part of this was about taking risks and stepping outside her comfort zone, and when Kurt had pierced his tongue back in New York, she told herself she wouldn't pierce anything other than her ears because it would probably hurt, but she'd done this.

After Rachel finished putting the solution on her ear, she walked over to the pool, where she noticed Finn was there as well. "You pierced your cartilage?" Finn gasped.

"Yeah," Rachel said nervously. Maybe this hadn't been a good idea. The other girls were fun to hang out with, sure, but this had been a last minute decision. Now Rachel's mind flashed back to the day she showed up at Funny Girl with the fake new haircut. She'd nearly gotten fired. Then of course there was the Vogue makeover. Kurt's words rang in her head: "now you're a slutty barbie..." She couldn't let herself do something like this again. What if she got fired?

"I just... didn't think you'd do something like that," Finn said.

What was Rachel supposed to say to that? "Well, we haven't really seen each other in three years... I went out with some of the other girls on the campaign and just decided to do it."

"We'll see what the congressman thinks," Finn said.

"He probably won't even notice," Rachel said. Now that she thought about it - how had Finn noticed? Was he studying her so carefully that he noticed things like that? Maybe he did have some attraction to her... She tried to take her mind off things. "So, how was your day off? What did you do?"

"Well, I hung out with some of the other guys," Finn said. "We went to see a movie."

"That's good," Rachel said. She finally decided to say what she'd wanted to say since she first found out she and Finn were working together. "Finn, I know we've got a lot of history between us, but we shouldn't be uncomfortable around each other. We may not be together anymore, but I still care about you a lot. I know with our history it might be complicated, but this isn't about us, this is about our country and the election."

"You're right," Finn said. "I'm sorry if I've been kind of distant... I just wasn't expecting to find you here."

"I wasn't expecting to find you here either," Rachel said.

"Well, like I told you, he's friends with Burt," Finn said. "My mom and Burt thought I needed something positive in my life, so they suggested I apply to work for this campaign. Ever since the glee club was disbanded, I've pretty much just been going through motions. I mean, I would go to school and go to the tire shop, but I wasn't really doing anything I enjoyed..."

Rachel was surprised Finn had revealed so much to her. "Well, I know what that's like. After That's So Rachel, no one would hire me to do anything, not even be a cleaning lady. That's why I was so surprised I got this job."

"Why did you leave Funny Girl so soon?" Finn asked Rachel. "It was your dream..."

"I don't really know, now that I think about it," Rachel admitted. "I guess I was just excited that I was getting so many offers and so much attention at once. If I had it to do over, I wouldn't have left. Now I don't think anyone will ever hire me to work on Broadway again, and I only have myself to blame for it."

"Sometimes we make decisions that seem right at the time, but it turns out they're not right," Finn said.

"Yeah, exactly," Rachel said. "So, you don't think there's any hope of the glee club coming back to McKinley?"

Finn shook his head. "Probably not. Mr. Schue's at Carmel now, and the last kids who were in it just graduated. Even if they hadn't graduated, Coach Sylvester had them transferred to other schools..."

"That's stupid," Rachel admitted.

"It is," Finn agreed. "My mom and Burt told me that when they saw us singing at the rally, that was the first time they'd really seen me happy in years... and I must admit, this past week is the most fun I've had in years."

"Really?" Rachel asked. This was odd. "My dad said the same thing."

"Oh, so your dad's fine with you working for Santos instead of Russell?" Finn asked.

Rachel had to admit - it was nice to have Finn teasing her again. "Well, Hiram and I had that talk and he saw us in the rally and he was glad to see me so happy. I haven't talked to LeRoy since I left Ohio, and when I was leaving, he was giving me a pretty hard time about working for Santos..."

"Shouldn't he be happy that you're happy for the first time in years?" Finn asked.

"You'd think," Rachel said. "So, how's Kurt? I miss him..."

"Why haven't you been talking to him?" Finn asked. "I know he misses you, everyone else does too..."

"I was just so embarrassed after That's So Rachel, I got rid of all my social media accounts and changed my phone number," Rachel admitted. "I didn't think people would want to be my friend anymore."

"Of course they still want to be your friend," Finn said. "Kurt and Blaine were hoping to have you in the wedding party at their wedding..."

"Really?" Rachel asked.

"Yeah really," Finn said.

That felt good. "Well, if they'd let me, I'd love to be in it. I miss them," Rachel said. "Do you think anyone else will get married any time soon?" Back in high school, everyone knew (or at least at the time they thought they knew) the first wedding would be Finn and Rachel's. But that was then...

"Well, I don't know who will be next, but Santana and Brittany, Puck and Quinn, Sam and Mercedes, Mike and Tina, Artie and Kitty, and Ryder and Marley are all pretty serious," Finn said.

All the other couples had lasted. But not Rachel and Finn. "That's great."

"You should really consider talking to everyone again," Finn encouraged. "I know everyone misses you. And I saw Santana and Brittany were happy to see you at the rally in New York."

"Brittany didn't think I was still alive," Rachel laughed.

"That's Brittany being Brittany," Finn said.

While they were on this topic, Rachel decided to ask Finn the question she'd been wondering for three years. "Finn, why did you tell me no contact?"

Finn paused. "You know how earlier I was saying that sometimes we make decisions that seem right at the time and turn out not to be right?"

"Yeah," Rachel said.

"That was one of those," Finn admitted. "I was hurt that you were into Brody and I thought that it would be easier to just not have you in my life, but I missed you. I didn't think you'd actually stick with the no contact rule."

"I didn't want to hurt you," Rachel said. "And Brody turned out to be a real loser. Santana discovered that he was a gigolo and that he was lying to me about it. He could have given me an STD."

Finn made a face. "Were you tested for STDs?"

"Yes, it came back clean," Rachel admitted. "But honestly, the real reason I was with Brody was because I was lonely. I wasn't really into him." She didn't want to make Finn think she was rushing into things. "What about you, any girls over the past few years?"

"There've been a few, but it never got serious," Finn admitted.

Rachel smiled to herself. Hopefully this meant one day, when she and Finn were both ready, they'd be together and it would be forever.

The door to the pool opened, and a family came in, letting Finn and Rachel know that they couldn't have such a personal conversation anymore (at least not at the hotel pool). But Rachel did feel somewhat better - she and Finn had really talked for the first time since they'd seen each other again and she felt like she had some answers to the questions she had.

"Wow!" said one of the kids in the family that came into the pool. "You look just like the people who sang Don't Stop Believing at the Santos rally last week!"

Rachel couldn't believe people recognized her and Finn. "That was us," Finn laughed.

"We're actually from New York, visiting family here," the kid's mom said. "We were at the rally. He's a great candidate for president, isn't he?"

"He is," Rachel said. "That's why we work for him. We actually have a rally here tomorrow."

"Is he at this hotel?" one of the other kids asked. "I want to meet him and get his autograph!"

"I think he's asleep," Finn admitted. "We've been so busy lately, but we'll give him your message."

"Well, good luck with everything," the kids' dad said.

"Thanks," Rachel said.

x

Rachel did feel better after her talk with Finn at the hotel pool. (Getting to see him in a swimsuit wasn't a bad bonus either.) At least now she had answers to her questions, and she hoped he had answers, too. Then Rachel heard her phone ringing. She looked at it and saw that it was LeRoy, so she picked it up. "Hello?"

"Hey," LeRoy said. "How are you?"

"Good, this is my day off, so I've mostly been relaxing," Rachel said. "How are you?"

"I saw you and Finn on TV last week, singing at the Santos rally," LeRoy said. "So Finn's working on the campaign, too?"

"Yeah," Rachel said. "He's an aide, like me."

"Instead of singing on Broadway, you're singing at rallies for a guy who shouldn't be the Democratic nominee for president," LeRoy groaned.

Rachel didn't like where this was going. "Finn and I just sang at the one rally."

"And then what are you doing?" LeRoy asked. "Carrying that man's bags?"

Rachel groaned. "Would you be acting this way if I was working for Russell?"

"You're young, you're not going to be young forever," LeRoy said. "I just think you're really wasting your life on this campaign."

Maybe now, Rachel could use her dads' competition to be the better dad to her advantage. "You know, Dad told me that it was the happiest he'd seen me in years when he saw the footage of me and Finn singing at the rally."

"I thought he was voting for Russell," LeRoy said.

"He is, but he notices that I'm happy for the first time in years," Rachel said. "Shouldn't that mean something to you?"

"Fine, Rachel, act like he's the better dad when you stayed with me first after that TV show of yours," LeRoy said. "But don't come crying to me when Russell beats Santos in the primary and you have nothing in your life again."

That particular comment made Rachel angry. She liked to think that Santos would win the primaries - but there was a possibility that Russell would. And of course, then there would need to be the faceoff against Vinick in November, and in 2012, Vinick had gotten 376 electoral votes... "I'm pretty tired, we have three campaign events tomorrow. I'm going to rest."

x

There was an early morning rally in Colorado before needing to catch a plane back to California for another event. Finn had slept well last night, feeling good about his conversation with Rachel at the hotel pool. He hadn't had time to talk to her much at the rally this morning, but during the plane trip to California, Finn came over to Rachel. "So, did he notice your piercing?" Finn asked. He felt comfortable teasing Rachel again. That was something, wasn't it?

"I told him about it and asked him if he wanted me to take it out, and he said it's fine," Rachel said.

"Good, we don't want him to go Rupert on you," Finn teased.

Rachel giggled. "Finn!"

"Did it hurt?" Finn asked.

"It did at first, but now I feel okay," Rachel admitted.

"Did you know Kurt has his tongue pierced?" Finn asked.

"Yeah," Rachel said as the plane landed in LA. "I don't think I could do that."

"It would be like sucking on metal all the time," Finn giggled as they got off the plane. "So, I heard Vinick's having an event here today, too, just down the street..." He'd read that online. Would their paths cross?

"Maybe we should have picked a different venue," Rachel said.

"Hey, we didn't know," Finn said. "I'm sure we won't run into him." He suddenly remembered that Rachel sometimes got motion sickness. They'd been flying for the past week, but it had never occurred to him until now. "Did the flight go okay for you? I remember when you threw up on the plane on the way to New York junior year..."

"Hey, the congressman's a pretty good flyer of campaign planes," Rachel said. "I bet we're the only campaign where our candidate flies his own plane."

"Yeah, it is," Finn added. "So, you're feeling okay?"

"Yeah," Rachel said.

The campaign would be stopping for lunch before the rally, but when the group walked over to a nearby restaurant, Finn noticed that there was a bunch of cars at the place they'd planned to go... including several limousines. He wasn't sure what was going on, but something about this gave him a bad feeling. He walked up to where Santos was with Josh. "Um, what are all those cars?"

"The secret service is making sure everything's okay, Finn," Josh said.

"Okay," Finn said. Still, all these cars gave Finn a bad feeling. He looked ahead and saw a bunch of men in black walking out of the restaurant, beginning to feel even more nervous. They had the secret service with them, but something about these people was weird. Finn saw Santos get out his phone and look at it as Rachel came over. "What's going on?" Rachel asked.

"It turns out the president's here," Santos said. "That was just one of our secret service agents texting me. Since we're here, the president wants to come over and say hi."

"He probably wants a photo op to make himself look good," Josh whispered to Finn.

Finn had never met the president before. Burt had never met the president. But Finn was sure he agreed with the president on absolutely nothing, and from interviews he saw on TV, the president gave him a bad vibe.

Vinick and a bunch of secret service agents and campaign staff walked over to the Santos group. "Well, if it isn't Matt Santos," Vinick said in a cocky voice.

Finn could tell his candidate was a bit uneasy with that tone, but Finn was surprised Santos remained professional and presidential. "Hello, Mr. President, nice to see you."

Vinick held out his hand. "Good to see you, my opponent. What brings you to LA?"

Santos shook Vinick's hand, but Vinick looked like he was trying to break Santos's fingers. "Here for a rally. California has a lot of electoral votes."

"But this is my home state," Vinick said. "So, campaign staff?"

Santos nodded. "This is Josh Lyman, my campaign manager, and then these are my aides, Finn Hudson and Rachel Berry."

"Those are the two who sang at the New York rally, right?" Vinick asked.

"You watched the rally?" Santos asked. "They're talented, aren't they?"

"It's good to keep up to date on your opponents' activity," Vinick said.

Finn definitely didn't like this man. If he wasn't the president, Finn would tell Vinick to get lost. He looked over at Rachel, who also had an uncomfortable look on her face.

"Look, it's Finchel!" a familiar voice said. Finn turned as Coach Sylvester came over and put her arms around Finn and Rachel.

"Wait?" Vinick asked Santos. "Your aides know my campaign manager?"

Sue was the Vinick campaign manager? "Oh yeah!" Sue said with fake enthusiasm. "Finn and Rachel and I go way back. I was the cheerleading coach at their high school, and I went to their almost wedding before it got interrupted when one of their bridesmaids got hit by a truck, and I helped the glee club win Nationals their senior year! But Finn, Rachel, you two are working for Santos?"

"Yeah," Finn spoke. "I think he has great ideas for this country, and in November, he's going to be headed for the White House."

"It was nice to see you and meet your campaign manager, Mr. President," Josh said. "I think we need to get to lunch. The congressman has a rally in an hour."

"Yeah, good to see you," Santos told Vinick. "Good luck today."

Vinick did not wish Santos good luck. He gave a smug look before walking off with Coach Sylvester and his secret service agents.

"Okay, Congressman, I'm telling you now, the Vinick campaign manager is not a good person," Rachel blurted out. She worked at our high school, and she was always punching students, shoving them into lockers, yelling at them, insulting people... she only had a job because she was blackmailing the school board..."

"What?" Santos asked. "That's crazy."

"It is crazy," Finn said. "I don't know why she had a job after everything she did... I don't know why the president hired her to manage the campaign. He's the president, I thought he'd know better..."

"He's an idiot," Josh interrupted.

"She particularly targeted Finn and me and the other kids in the glee club," Rachel said.

"Are you okay?" Santos asked.

"Yeah, I'm okay," Rachel said.

Finn put his arm around Rachel. He could tell that it had upset her to see Coach Sylvester again. The comments Coach Sylvester had made about Finn and Rachel's almost wedding had made both of them uneasy. They knew they didn't want the congressman to know about their complicated history. But Sue Sylvester had talked about it in front of him.

"Are you two sure you're okay?" Santos asked. "Campaigns can be stressful. If you want to sit down for a little, you can..."

"We're fine," Finn and Rachel both said.

"This stays here, but I don't like Arnold Vinick at all as a president or as a person," Santos said. "And his campaign manager did come off as a bit crazy... what was that she was saying about you two and a wedding?"

Finn sighed as he looked at Rachel. They couldn't lie about this. "When we were seniors, we did almost get married. We were young, and we were scared about our future and we thought that getting married would solve our problems... we were young... we didn't know what we were doing..."

"Yeah, exactly," Rachel cut in. "Like we said, we fell out of contact after high school, but this isn't going to impact our ability to do great things for the campaign."

"Okay," Santos said. "I never doubted you two. You guys hungry?"

"Yeah, I am," Finn admitted, hoping to get his mind off the fact that a piece of his past that he didn't feel comfortable talking about had been revealed. Last night he and Rachel had finally seemed to be in a good place again, a place where despite their complicated past, they understood each other. Now that the congressman AND the campaign manager knew about their history. And that changed everything.


	5. Not So Happy Reunion

Chapter 5: Not So Happy Reunion

Finn sat in a hotel room in today's stop on the campaign trail - Richmond, Indiana. They'd had a rally here this afternoon and been in Indianapolis this morning. Finn wasn't even sure if it was worth it to stop in Indiana - it had gone Democrat in 2008, but the Republicans took it back in full force in 2012. Still, Josh had asked Finn and Rachel to make arrangements to go to all the states that changed parties in 2012, so Indiana was on the list.

Finn and Rachel had finally been comfortable again after their talk in Colorado - then they'd met up with Sue and Vinick, and that changed everything. Sue had told the story of the engagement of senior year. Finn always knew that he wanted to marry Rachel - one day. During his senior year, he was panicked about his future and thought getting engaged would make things better.

He and Rachel hadn't been questioned about the senior year engagement, but that didn't mean he didn't worry that the candidate and the campaign manager were judging him and her for it. They did what was asked of them, but Finn was watching his every move, making sure he didn't do anything that might give the man he hoped would become the leader of the free world a bad vibe.

"Hey, can I join you?" Finn looked up and saw Matt Santos himself coming in.

"Yeah, of course," Finn said. "Just getting some campaign literature together for the event tomorrow."

"Where's Rachel?" Santos asked.

"She, Anna and Ronna are taking some literature to the local board of elections, maybe talking to some people there," Finn said. "Josh asked me to get these together. You can relax if you want. I have this under control..." Now that he was alone with Santos, he figured he should talk about what Sue had said. He didn't want more people to know about it. "Sir, about what the president's campaign manager said the other day..."

"You want to talk about it?" Santos asked.

Finn didn't know what to say. "I really hope you know that the fact that she and I were scared of the future and thought getting married would solve all our problems doesn't mean we can't make good decisions. We were young..."

"It's okay," Santos repeated. "Your stepdad's told me all about you, Finn. I knew I was going to hire you as soon as he told me you might be interested. I wouldn't have hired you if I wasn't sure you'd do a great job - and from everything Burt's told me about you, I know you will."

Finn smiled. "Thanks, sir."

"So, are you excited to be back in Ohio tomorrow?" Santos asked.

"It'll be weird to be back after having been away for a few weeks," Finn admitted. "I haven't been out of Ohio for more than a few days at a time except for one brief period. It will be kind of nice to be back."

"Any of your friends coming to the rally see you and Rachel?" Santos asked.

Finn wasn't sure. After all, only Santana and Brittany had even seen Rachel since That's So Rachel. "I don't know, I haven't been able call my friends very much. You know how busy it's been... how often do you get to talk to your wife?" He then realized that probably wasn't a good question to ask. Maybe a little too personal...

"I talk to her and the kids every day," Santos said.

"So relationships can work when you're doing this... never mind," Finn said. It was too premature to think about getting back with Rachel...

"What?" Santos asked.

Finn shrugged. "Nothing."

"If you're in a relationship you're concerned about..." Santos began.

Finn took a deep breath. Maybe it wouldn't hurt to talk about Rachel with someone who hadn't been there for all the crazy. "Can I tell you something?"

"Of course," Santos said.

No. Maybe this wasn't a good idea. "My stomach hurts. Do you have any peptobismol or anything like that?"

"If you need someone to talk to about Rachel, you can talk to me," Santos said.

"Has Burt told you much about me and Rachel?" Finn asked.

"He hasn't, but I could tell it upset you both when the president's campaign manager made you both uncomfortable," Santos admitted.

Finn sighed. It would probably be good to get this off his chest. "If you don't mind me asking, Congressman, when did you know that Helen was the one?"

"I reached a point when I couldn't picture a future without her in it. We actually dated in high school, too, and we broke up after graduation and went to different colleges. But she was still on my mind a lot, even when I dated other people, so we decided to try long distance. It didn't feel right to think about being married and having kids with anyone but her. I think it was the breakup that really made me realize she was the only woman for me. Is that how you feel about Rachel?" Santos asked.

That was how Finn felt about himself and Rachel, too. "Yeah. I thought being broken up would have made me get used to life without her - but it just made me miss her more. Seeing her again has brought back my feelings for her. But we've both gotten hurt and I don't want her to get hurt again. I don't want to get hurt again. I want us to be together. I want it to be forever. I love her and it doesn't feel right to picture being married to or having kids or building a life with anyone but her. But I don't know. I wish love wasn't so confusing, you know?"

"I got a feeling the day I met you and Rachel that something was there," Santos told Finn. "I saw the way you two looked at each other when you were performing at the rally."

"Don't Stop Believing," Finn said. "That was the first song Rachel and I ever sang together. The first one we got to finish, anyway."

"Really?" Santos asked.

"Yeah," Finn said. "I remember all sorts of little things about her and me..." He figured he might as well tell the story. "We really met when we were sophomores in high school and right away I knew something was there, but I was with a different girl at the time and she told me she was pregnant with her baby, so I couldn't break up with her for Rachel. Then when I found out it wasn't really my baby, I needed time to myself, but then when I realized I wanted to be with Rachel, she started dating another guy. That other guy turned out to be the biggest asshole ever, but at least we finally date when they broke up. Things were going great, but then she found out I lied about my virginity and kissed another guy for revenge, so we broke up. We were both wrong, and I realized she wouldn't have done that if I didn't lie, but I started dating my old girlfriend to get over her. She also started dating her old boyfriend again. Finally, we got back together at the end of our junior year and were together and happy for our whole senior year, but there were uncertainties about our futures. That was when we had our engagement. Then she got into the school of her dreams and I didn't, so I broke up with her so she could pursue her dreams without holding her back. When I went to visit her in New York, I realized she was dating someone else. She said she was dating him because she missed me, but I still felt bad. Then I told her no contact... and this was the first time we saw each other in three years. Like I told you, I never stopped loving her." Maybe he shouldn't have told the full story...

Luckily, Santos didn't seem to be judging Finn. "Finn, let me tell you something. When two people are meant to be together, the universe has its way of working things out for them. If you two were meant to stick with the no contact, you probably wouldn't still be thinking about her, and you definitely wouldn't have gotten jobs on the same campaign."

Finn had always sort of believed in fate. "I guess you're right."

"Now, since it has been three years, I don't think you should get together right away," Santos continued. "A lot can change in three years. You should focus on getting to know each other again. Helen and I didn't get back together right away when we first started talking again after the breakup either. And Josh, the campaign manager? He and his girlfriend went through some stuff like you and Rachel went through in their early days, and now they're getting married in December. Just take things slow, get to know her, be a friend. When the time's right to get back together, you'll know it. You'll both know it. Just trust that everything will work out."

Finn nodded. "Okay." He knew he'd made the right choice now about who to vote for, let alone work for, now more than ever.

"Do you still need that peptobismol?" Santos asked. "Because I do have some."

"My stomach feels better," Finn said. "Thanks for talking with me, Congressman."

"Of course," Santos said. "Everything will be okay, Finn."

x

The Ohio rally was being held in Dayton, about an hour and a half from Lima. Rachel couldn't help but wonder if anyone from New Directions would be here. It was summer, after all, and even though everyone had gone all over the place, people came home in the summer...

She knew that even though Dayton was close to Cincinnati, LeRoy wouldn't be here. As it turned out, Russell was speaking in Cincinnati today. LeRoy had texted Rachel, asking if she'd consider coming down to Cincinnati to see Russell speak instead of going to the Santos event. Rachel hadn't even replied to that text.

Finn and Rachel worked their way through the crowd, handing out Santos for President signs. "So, what do you think of our crowds in the swing states so far?" Rachel asked Finn.

"Well, we do have big crowds," Finn said. "I've noticed a lot of young people, haven't you?"

"Yeah, I have," Rachel said. "I just wish we still weren't trailing Russell by double digits."

"We have been gaining since we started having campaign events," Finn said. "It would be good if we got some big endorsements..."

"It is a little early for endorsements," Finn admitted. "The biggest endorsements we could get would probably be the two living former Democratic presidents. I wouldn't be surprised if the president we had before Vinick is keeping a low profile because of what happened in 2012. We might be able to get Bartlet's endorsement though."

"That would be good," Rachel said. "In a way I kind of hope Sue exposes herself for the crazy that she is so the public can see that Vinick is an unfit president."

"Finn? Rachel?" a familiar voice said. Rachel looked up and saw Kurt, Blaine, Mercedes, Tina, Artie and Sam. She gulped. She wasn't expecting this.

"Finn, I tried calling you to say that I was coming today," Kurt said.

"I'm sorry, my phone must have been off," Finn said.

Kurt gave Rachel a hug. "I missed you so much. Where have you been all these years?"

"Oh, she probably thought she was too good for us little people," Tina snapped.

"Tina!" Artie said.

Rachel felt hurt by Tina's comment. That wasn't why she hadn't contacted anyone in two years. If anything, the opposite was true - she thought that her friends wouldn't want to be linked to someone from such an embarrassing TV show.

Rachel could tell that Finn knew she was upset. "So, how long are you guys in Ohio for?" Finn asked.

"Oh, we just came to visit for the weekend, and when we found out Santos was speaking here, we thought we'd come see him speak," Blaine said. "Seriously though, Rachel, we've missed you."

"Well, after That's So Rachel, I was so embarrassed..." Rachel began.

"We're still your friends," Kurt said. "We all tried calling you, but your number was disconnected."

Rachel sighed. "Guys, I didn't think you'd want to be my friend anymore..."

"Of course we do," Sam said.

"Besides, you're back in a bigger way than ever," Mercedes said. "You're working on a presidential campaign."

"Yeah," Rachel said.

"And you guys sang Don't Stop Believing at the New York rally, we heard," Artie said.

"We did," Finn said. "So, any idea who everyone's voting for? Rachel and I have some information on Santos for anyone who's undecided..."

"Well, all of us are voting for Santos, of course," Kurt said. "And so are Santana and Brittany, as you could tell."

"And everyone else?" Rachel asked.

"Well... I think I'm slowly but surely convincing Kitty to vote for Santos instead of Vinick," Artie said. "We can try to convince Quinn to not vote for Vinick, too. We'll need Tina to talk Mike out of voting for Russell, and we've got to convince Puck, Marley, Ryder, Jake and Unique to vote for Santos instead of Russell, too."

Their group's votes were divided. It was to be expected. "My dads are voting for Russell," Rachel said.

"And Sue's Vinick's campaign manager," Finn said.

"Oh God," Kurt groaned. "Do you guys think you'll be able to hang out after the rally? We have so much catching up to do, especially with Rachel..."

"We need to get up to Cleveland tonight," Finn said.

"Of course," Tina said. "We're not good enough for Rachel Berry The Big Gold Star anymore, don't you guys know that?"

"Tina, don't say that," Finn said.

"Why did she block us from calling her, huh?" Tina asked.

"I didn't block you," Rachel said. "I was so embarrassed by That's So Rachel and I thought you guys wouldn't want to be my friends anymore, so I changed my number and got rid of my social media accounts..."

"You weren't too embarrassed to apply for a job on a presidential campaign," Tina shot back.

Tina was taking things too far. Rachel wasn't going to say publicly that this was the ONLY job she could get. But Tina kept talking. "You always thought you were too good for us. With all your solos. And you probably didn't talk to us because we aren't good enough for you. You were the ONLY graduate who never came back to help out our senior year and you never even learned the new members' names. You didn't even come back for the glee club farewell or Mr. Schue's almost wedding. All you care about is being on top. You've set your sights even higher than a Broadway show now, but you don't realize that Russell's probably going to run over Santos in the primaries..."

"Tina, stop it," Blaine said.

"Finn and I should finish handing out these signs," Rachel said. She wasn't interested in any more of Tina's ranting. It hurt. And the worst part was, she could see why Tina thought what she thought. Rachel had disappeared without telling anyone where she was going. She had cut off all contact. Shouldn't that have been up to her friends?

When Rachel and Finn were done handing out the signs, Rachel looked at Finn. "Is that really what they think of me?"

"What?" Finn asked. "No! Mercedes and the guys seemed happy to see you. At the New York rally, Santana and Brittany seemed happy to see you..."

"All those things Tina said, about me always thinking I was too good for them..." Rachel looked down. "I shouldn't have cut off contact with everyone. I should have been at Mr. Schue's wedding and at the glee club farewell."

"I get why you weren't," Finn said. "I told you I didn't want to hear from you anymore, and I regret that now."

Rachel gave Finn a hug. "I miss them, I just wish things could go back to the way they were... but they can't. It'll take time for me to feel comfortable with them again. It took nearly two weeks of working together before I felt comfortable with you again..." She realized she'd just said it to Finn, that she felt comfortable. Things had been weird for her at first, then they had their talk and things got better, but then they'd run into Sue. She'd felt a little weird at first, but now that she saw no one on the campaign was judging her and Finn, she was feeling okay.

"But we are comfortable with each other again," Finn said. "That's what matters."

It felt good to know that Finn was comfortable with her, too. Rachel smiled at Finn. "At least I know you're not mad at me..." She had questioned her decision to disappear. But what was done was done, and she couldn't undo the past year.

"I'm sure things will work out," Finn said. "We'd better get back to the staff."

"Yeah, we'd better," Rachel said.

x

"I'm so hungry," Rachel said as she and Finn sat down for dinner at the hotel's bar. There hadn't been time for a dinner break between the two Ohio rallies, so Finn and Rachel couldn't eat until nearly ten in the evening.

"Well, we'd better be careful of the Campaign Ten," Finn teased.

"That exists?" Rachel asked.

"Josh was telling me the other day that the congressman is the first candidate he's run a campaign for who HASN'T gained weight," Finn laughed.

"Wow," Rachel said. "I'm not a vegan anymore, so I'd better be careful."

"You're not a vegan?" Finn asked.

There was still a lot for Finn and Rachel to learn about each other over the past three years. "Not anymore. My doctor thought it would be good for me to have dairy and protein."

Before Finn could say anything else, a familiar voice came from the hotel's TV. "As the president's campaign manager, I can say that I'm more and more confident that we'll win this election in a year." Finn and Rachel saw Sue on the TV. "I know that the Democrats are coming out, but they don't have what it takes."

"I don't know, Ms. Sylvester," the anchor said. "The Democrats have been doing pretty well in the polls against the president, they've been gaining more and more. And there's been media buzz lately about Matt Santos... people really like his speeches and his rallies have brought in big crowds."

"Him?" Sue asked. "He's nothing to worry about! And his staff is so weak..."

Rachel had a feeling she knew Sue was taking a punch at her and Finn. Looking at Finn, she knew Finn knew that, too.

"What do you know about his staff?" the interviewer asked.

Coach Sylvester looked like she didn't know what to say. "I heard several of his staff members have gay family members. Marriage is between a man and a woman."

Finn and Rachel exchanged an angry look. They knew who Coach Sylvester was referring to.

"But Ms. Sylvester, in the past, you've been shown to support gay rights," the interviewer said. "And before he was elected president, Arnold Vinick was pro gay."

"Well, that was then and this is now," Coach Sylvester snapped. "By hiring staff members with gay family members Matt - I heard his staff calls him Matt, so I'll call him that too - is sending a message to America that gay is okay."

"What is she doing?" Finn asked. "Does she really think she can say these things on national television?"

"How did she even get a job on this campaign?" Rachel asked. "I know Vinick's an idiot, but I thought he would at least have some sense."

"That was you and me she was talking about, I know it," Finn said.

"Of course it was," Rachel groaned. "We should tell Matt and Josh she's doing this..."

"You called our candidate Matt?" Finn asked.

"Might as well, he wants us to," Rachel said.

"I do wonder if she does feel threatened by us, by our campaign, by Matt," Finn said. "Notice how she didn't talk about any issues, just his staff's families."

"Yeah, but the religious right will get a kick out of what she said," Rachel sighed.

"We'll need to fight back," Finn said. "We always do, don't we?"

"Yeah," Rachel said. She couldn't believe Sue had slammed her and Finn indirectly on national television - but she had a bad feeling this wasn't the last of it. She knew Sue - and she had a feeling the slams would only get nastier.


	6. The First Debate

Chapter 6: The First Debate

It had been less than a month, and the campaign had already been to 25 of the 50 states. Finn never thought he would visit so many states in such a short time. The days were long and busy, but other than the few run-ins with Sue and Vinick, Finn was loving every minute of this. He was seeing places he never thought he'd see and getting to meet and talk to all kinds of people. Even though Russell was leading in the polls for the Democratic nomination still, the Santos supporters were very enthusiastic and many of them were asking about volunteer opportunities. The other campaign staff were fun to hang out with too. And of course, Finn loved getting to spend so much time with Rachel.

The campaign was in Texas now, but not for a campaign event - for the first Democratic debate. The debate was being held in Houston, the hometown of their candidate. Texas was a state that could go either way - it was traditionally a conservative state and Vinick had won it by 30 percentage points in 2012, but since it was Santos's home state, maybe they'd have a shot at it. Finn remembered his prediction early on in the campaign - that they'd win all five of the biggest states in the country. Could they do it?

"I expected his house to be bigger, is that weird?" Rachel asked Finn, interrupting his thoughts as they walked up to the Santos home for debate prep.

"Well, Burt's a congressman, and our house is pretty normal sized," Finn said.

"True, I guess," Rachel said. She walked up and rang the bell of the house. Finn still found it hard to believe he was about to enter the house of a man who might become president, but since this was the first debate, Josh had wanted to do debate prep at a place where the candidate would be comfortable. That didn't make this any more real - Finn had to show his ID to the secret service before going in.

"So, how do you think he'll do?" Finn asked.

"He's a good, engaging speaker," Rachel said. "I've never seen him debate before, but since he's such a good speaker, I think he'll be fine."

Finn smiled at Rachel's optimism as they went inside. Lots of the other campaign staff was already there. "Finn, Rachel, welcome," Mrs. Santos said, coming over to Finn and Rachel. "Anything I can get you?"

"We're fine, thanks Mrs. Santos," Rachel said.

"Please call me Helen," Mrs. Santos said. "And you guys get my husband stuff when he needs it, are you sure there's nothing I can get you? You hungry?" Now that Finn knew the Santoses' backstory, he was reminded of it when he saw Mrs. Santos - Helen - herself in person. They'd also dated in high school and broken up for college, but now they were married, had two kids, and had what seemed like a nice home together. Maybe there was hope for Finn and Rachel.

"Rachel!" The Santoses' five-year-old daughter, Miranda, came running up to Rachel.

"Hi!" Rachel said. "You remember me?"

"Of course she remembers you," Helen said. "She had a lot of fun listening to the Frozen music with you at the first rally."

"Want to come see my room, Rachel?" Miranda asked.

"I'd love to," Rachel said.

Finn had to smile to himself. He and Rachel had babysat together when they were in high school, but it was nice to see that she was still good with kids.

"Where's Matt?" Finn asked Helen.

"He's upstairs sleeping, he looked exhausted so I made him take a nap," Helen said. "So, how are you liking the campaign?"

"I'm really enjoying it," Finn said. "It's fun getting to talk to all the voters and see the country, and the staff is pretty cool. Like you said, it can be exhausting though."

"Finn!" a voice interrupted Finn's thoughts. Finn turned and saw Rachel and Miranda. "Want to play with us?" Rachel asked.

"Yeah!" Miranda added. "Rachel's the queen and I'm the princess. We're having a tea party."

"A tea party?" Finn asked.

"Rachel made cookies for the tea party," Miranda declared.

"Pretend cookies," Rachel mouthed to Finn.

Finn missed Rachel's homemade food. "Then I'm definitely coming!" Finn said.

"Yay!" Rachel clapped.

"Are you Rachel's friend?" Miranda asked Finn.

"Yeah, she's my friend," Finn said. He didn't feel like explaining the complicated situation to a five-year-old.

Miranda led Finn and Rachel up to her bedroom, where the girls had apparently set three places at the table. Finn struggled to fit into one of the chairs at the table and noticed Rachel giggling. "What's so funny?" Finn asked.

"Yeah, what's so funny?" Miranda asked.

"You're a little big for that chair," Rachel giggled.

Finn gave Rachel a playful slap on her wrist and smirked at her. "Finn! Hitting isn't nice!" Miranda said. "Mommy says never to hit people."

"Yeah, hitting isn't nice," Rachel added, teasing Finn.

"Should he be our servant instead of having the tea party with us?" Miranda asked Rachel.

"I think Finn can still have tea with us," Rachel said. "Since I'm the queen, he can be the king."

Finn couldn't help but think about what that would mean. If he was the king and Rachel was the queen... that would mean in this game, they were married.

"Would you like some tea?" Miranda asked, interrupting Finn's thoughts as she held up the teapot.

"I would love some," Finn said.

"And would you like a cookie?" Rachel asked.

"Yes!" Finn said.

x

The debate was being held at Rice University. This was the first campaign event where Finn and Rachel had to dress up. Rachel hadn't seen Finn in a suit and tie since... that night at Grease. As the campaign staff and the Santos family sat in their designated waiting room for the debate, Rachel kept looking over at Finn, noticing how handsome he looked in a suit.

"Sorry Finn and I couldn't be helpful with debate prep," Rachel told Santos.

"From what I heard, Miranda had fun playing with you two, so I'll let it slide," Santos teased.

"Yeah, Finn and Rachel are fun," Miranda said.

"You survived playing girly games with her?" the Santoses' eight-year-old son, Peter, asked Finn.

"Yeah," Finn said. Playing with Finn and Miranda reminded Rachel of when she and Finn played with the kids they babysat together. Then Finn turned to Rachel. "This feels so much more real now, doesn't it? Our guy's going to debate with the other candidates..."

"Yeah," Rachel said with a smile. "And we're going to finally meet the guy my dads are voting for..."

"We will," Finn said, hoping that things would go well.

The announcement came over the loudspeaker. All family and staff members needed to get to their seats. Finn looked up at his candidate. "Good luck."

"Remember to breathe," Rachel added. "Don't ever compromise your beliefs, no matter what the other candidates are saying."

"Just be yourself," Finn added. "You're going to be great." They shook hands with Santos and went to the stands to wait for the debate to begin.

"How do you think it'll go?" Finn asked.

"Well, I hope," Rachel said. "He seems pretty relaxed, so that's something."

"Yeah," Finn said. As Finn and Rachel walked to their seats, Rachel stopped her tracks.

LeRoy was here.

"What's going on?" Finn asked.

"My dad's here," Rachel whispered to Finn.

"What?" Finn whispered back as he looked around.

"He must be a pretty big Russell contributor," Rachel said. "It's so hard to get invited to these..." If her dad was here, would he talk to her? Would he talk to Finn? Would he be rude to someone from the campaign, or to the congressman himself?

Rachel's thoughts were interrupted when the moderator spoke. "Welcome to the first Democratic debate of the 2016 presidential election..."

It was beginning. Rachel's eyes stayed on her dad. She noticed her dad was looking at Russell. As the candidates went through their opening statements, Rachel saw LeRoy make a face as Santos spoke. Then the moderator spoke. Russell was getting the first question: why did he change his positions so often?

"Well, I'm pretty sure I'm going to be the Democratic nominee," Russell said. "Nobody stays the same all the time. I was vice president from 1997 to 2001, so I know what it's like to be president. As a Senator, I've continued to fight for this country. Every time I cast a vote in the Senate, I think carefully about it and how it will affect the country. There are many difficult decisions we'll need to make and when I'm president, I'll always make what seems right at the time."

"I don't think that was answering the question," Finn whispered to Rachel.

"Neither do I," Rachel whispered back.

"Okay," the moderator said. "Thank you Senator. For two minutes, I'll give the other candidates a chance for a rebuttal."

"With all due respect, you didn't answer the question," Santos said to Russell. "You voted to send more troops to Afghanistan, and now you say we never should have gone. You say that you now denounce that immigration bill that you and Senator Walken wrote together. You were opposed to gay marriage until the Supreme Court legalized it..."

"Well, I changed my mind," Russell said. "When I saw that so many people thought differently about those things, I saw the light."

"So, are you saying, Senator, that you make decisions based on what most people like at the time?" asked another congressman.

"Not necessarily, but you can't expect me to think the same thing all the time," Russell said, appearing annoyed.

"Wow," Finn whispered to Rachel. "That's who your dads are voting for?"

"Yeah," Rachel said. She couldn't see why. As the debate continued, Santos continued to outperform Russell and the other candidates, giving answers that were clearly well-researched and planned out, showing that he'd take the time to research the issues. Russell often stumbled around his answers and focused a lot on faults he found with the other candidates, sometimes appearing as if he was trying to fill space. After about two hours, the candidates were giving their closing statements, and Santos went last. Rachel had seen drafts of the statement, but tonight she was sure this was the best it had ever been. "I decided to run for president to improve our flailing public schools, to keep more people from going bankrupt, and to make health care affordable to everyone. Why is it that tonight, and that many ads people have made from both parties, that this election hasn't been about the issues? It's been about tearing your opponents apart. This election shouldn't be about that. This country shouldn't be about that. So I give this challenge to everyone here tonight, and all the Republicans: let's focus on what we'd do as president and not on what our opponents can't do. We're better than that. This country is better than that."

Rachel and Finn both noticed - except for Russell, the other candidates seemed to agree with the statement. Russell stood there looking dumbfounded. Rachel looked at LeRoy, who looked shocked.

"I think he won the debate," Finn whispered to Rachel.

"Yeah, I think he did," Rachel whispered back.

After the candidates were called off the stage, Finn and Rachel went to the rented room to meet up with the other campaign staff. Rachel heard a familiar voice as she and Finn were on their way. "Rachel?"

Rachel turned and saw LeRoy. "Hi Daddy."

"Hi Mr. Berry," Finn said.

"Hi Finn," LeRoy said. "It's been a while."

"Yeah," Finn said. "How are you?"

"I'm good," LeRoy said. "Since I'm one of Russell's Top 25 contributors, he invited me to come to the debate..."

Her dad had given THAT much money to Russell? "Finn and I have to get back with the campaign staff..." Rachel began.

"Can we talk for a few minutes?" LeRoy asked.

"I'm not going to start working for Russell instead of Santos," Rachel said. "Santos is a great candidate, he's a great person, and he'll be a great president. I'm having the time of my life on this campaign, it's the most fun I've had since high school. I know we disagree on who's the best candidate, but I don't want that to get in the way of things for you and me..."

"Want to take a walk with me?" LeRoy asked.

"Sure," Rachel said. She turned to Finn. "Can you tell Josh I'll be a little late?"

"Sure," Finn said as he began to walk away.

"There's someone I'd like you to meet," LeRoy said as he began leading Rachel away.

Oh no. Rachel had a feeling she knew what this meant. LeRoy had started dating another man. "Okay."

When LeRoy led Rachel into another room, there was Bob Russell himself. "Sir, I'd like you to meet my daughter, Rachel," LeRoy said.

Rachel should have had a feeling this was coming. "Nice to meet you." What was she supposed to say? She could get in trouble with the campaign if she got seen here...

"Isn't she the one who's working for Santos?" Russell asked.

"Yes but..." LeRoy began.

"Yeah, I am," Rachel said. "I should probably get back to the Santos room. Nice to meet you, sir." She began to leave the room with LeRoy following her.

"Rachel, why did you walk out like that?" LeRoy asked.

Rachel turned around. "Daddy, I have a job. I could get in trouble for being in there..."

"I was hoping if you talked to him, you'd start working for him..." LeRoy began.

"Did you not watch the debate?" Rachel asked. "My guy was the clear winner."

"He had an off day!" LeRoy protested.

"I'm not arguing about this," Rachel said. "I'm on the job right now, and I'm not letting you ruin this for me."

"Don't take that tone with me, young lady," LeRoy snapped as Rachel started to walk away.

Rachel turned around. "You know, Dad's been so much more supportive of me. He even called me to wish me luck! I know you're both trying to prove that you're the better dad and he's definitely being the better dad now. I wouldn't be surprised if he's the biological father." Rachel then regretted those words. She'd probably gone too far.

LeRoy looked at Rachel. "Is that what you think? Well, guess what: neither of us are."

"What?" Rachel asked. She'd always known one of them was... they mixed their sperms in the turkey baster...

"Yeah, if you're going to be that rude, I might as well tell you, you aren't either of ours biologically," LeRoy said. "We said that to make things easier for you. Your real biological father is one of Shelby's college boyfriends."

This couldn't be true. "What?" Rachel asked. "You're lying, right?"

"If you're not going to be respectful to me, then I'm not going to play around anymore," LeRoy said.

"I don't have time for this," Rachel said. She hoped that this wasn't true, but it could be. Her candidate had a great night tonight, so she wanted to go celebrate with the other staff. Rachel went to the room where the staff was, going up to Santos. "Hey, congratulations. You did great tonight."

"Thanks," Santos said.

"I think he was the clear winner tonight, don't you, Rachel?" Josh asked.

"For sure," Rachel said.

"This calls for champagne," Finn said, handing a glass of champagne to Rachel.

"I would say so," Rachel said. She could figure out if what LeRoy said was true later tonight, but right now she just wanted to celebrate.

x

After returning to the hotel, Rachel picked up her phone. She hadn't stopped thinking about what LeRoy had told her, and she needed answers. She dialed Hiram's number, hoping he'd answer.

Hiram picked up the phone. "Rachel!"

"Hey Dad," Rachel said. Hopefully he'd just tell her LeRoy was trying to upset her...

"Your guy had a great night tonight," Hiram said.

"He did, didn't he?" Rachel asked.

"My guy, not so much," Hiram said.

"Daddy was at the debate," Rachel said. "Apparently he's given Russell so much money that he got invited to the debate."

"What?" Hiram asked.

"Yeah," Rachel said. She decided to just get to it. "He and I were arguing... and then he said that my real father is some college boyfriend of Shelby's..."

There was silence on Hiram's end of the phone. "You weren't supposed to know about that..."

So it was true. "What? Why didn't you guys tell me?"

"We talked to Shelby, and we thought that it would be easier for you if you just thought you were the product of a surrogacy," Hiram said. "I thought in the beginning that you should know the truth, but LeRoy and Shelby insisted that we do it that way..."

"But why?" Rachel asked. The past 22 years had been a lie. She was the daughter of some man whose name she didn't even know.

"It wasn't right of us to lie to you," Hiram admitted. "And I'm sorry that you had to find out like this."

"Ever since I got this job, LeRoy and I have been arguing every time we've talked," Rachel said. "At first I thought he was just saying that to get in my head so I wouldn't be at my best for Santos, but..."

"I'm so sorry," Hiram said.

Rachel didn't feel like talking to Hiram. "What's his name?"

"I don't know," Hiram said. "Shelby didn't tell us."

Rachel wasn't sure if she believed that. After all, for 22 years, she'd been lied to about who her father was. "I'm tired, I have to go."

"Rachel..." Hiram began.

Rachel hung up the phone before she dialed Shelby's phone number. At first she thought LeRoy might just be saying this because he was mad at her for working for Santos instead of Russell, but when Hiram admitted it was true, Rachel now needed answers.

Shelby picked up the phone almost right away. "Hi Rachel."

"Hi Shelby," Rachel said.

"How's the Santos campaign going?" Shelby asked.

"It's good, I think he did well in the debate," Rachel sighed. She figured she'd get to why she was calling. "Shelby, my dads told me that neither of them are my father... that you had me with a boyfriend in college and put me up for adoption. Is that true?"

"You weren't supposed to know that..." Shelby began. "But yes, it's true."

Rachel felt like she'd been punched in the stomach. For 22 years, she'd been led to believe that one of the men who raised her was her biological father. It turned out that the man who helped to create her was likely a man who she hadn't even met. "Why did you have my dads lie to me? Was he some criminal in the making who you didn't want me to know about or something?"

"It's not that at all," Shelby sighed. "He was a great guy... he was smart and he was nice and he was handsome... he just wasn't the guy for me."

"Don't you think he would have wanted to meet his daughter?" Rachel asked.

"He and I were both in bad places in our lives when we dated," Shelby admitted. "He was still in love with his girlfriend from high school who he broke up with before college. I was auditioning for and getting rejected for role after role. Neither of us said it, but we hoped that dating would make things better for us, but it didn't. We couldn't have raised you together."

"Yeah, but why did you lie?" Rachel asked. "Why did you have my dads lie?"

"We thought it would be easier for you," Shelby admitted. "Shortly after I got pregnant, I was so upset and embarrassed, I went back to Ohio, hoping that after I gave up the baby, I could start over. I wrote him a letter to tell him what I was doing."

This was getting worse and worse. "You mean he didn't have a say in this?" Rachel asked.

"He and I were in our first year of college, we couldn't have raise a child together, especially since the relationship wasn't really working for either of us," Shelby said. "I probably should have let him have a say. I thought things would be less complicated if you thought you were always meant for your dads, not the product of two confused, troubled eighteen-year-olds who forgot to use protection one night."

"Well, can you at least tell me his name?" Rachel asked. She felt like she deserved to know that much.

"If I tell you his name, I know you'll go looking for him," Shelby said. "I've looked him up online. He's built a nice life for himself. He's married to his high school girlfriend and he has two young kids..."

So Rachel had two younger siblings who likely didn't even know she existed. "Well, I think I have the right to know who he is. He is my father."

"No, he's not!" Shelby said. "He's the man who provided the sperm for you. You have two fathers. You've got enough on your plate right now with this campaign and he has a life of his own. Your dads don't even know his name and he doesn't know who you went to. I thought this would make the situation easier for everyone involved."

"Well, I hope you will decide to tell me his name," Rachel said. She didn't feel like arguing with Shelby. "Even if I can't meet him, it would be good to know his name or what he looks like or something like that. I've got to go now. We have an event tomorrow." She hung up the phone, feeling more and more annoyed.

Rachel took a walk down the hotel hall, knowing who she needed to talk to. She knocked on the door of Finn's room. He always knew what to say at times like this.

Finn came to the door. "What's going on?"

Rachel felt some comfort. Finn didn't even need to ask that something was wrong. He knew. "I've spent the past 22 years living a lie. My real father is not Hiram or LeRoy Berry. It's some college boyfriend of Shelby's. Shelby and my dads thought my life would be less complicated if they thought she was a surrogate rather than that she gave me up for adoption."

"What?" Finn asked. "Why would they lie to you?"

"I don't even know," Rachel said. "Supposedly to make things easier. They thought I'd go looking for my biodad if I found out who he was. LeRoy got angry at me after the debate and told me, and at first I thought he was lying, but Shelby and Hiram both confirmed that it's true."

"You have a right to know who he is," Finn said. "What's his name?"

"Shelby wouldn't tell me," Rachel said. "She thinks he's a great guy, but apparently now that he's married and has two kids, she thinks I'd be invading his life if I showed up."

"That's really unfair," Finn said. He pulled Rachel in for a hug. "I'm sorry, Rachel."

Rachel snuggled up to Finn as she wrapped her arms around him. At least she knew that Finn was there for her.


	7. One Point

Chapter 7: One Point

Rachel's phone rang as she was getting ready to leave the hotel. She looked at the Caller ID and saw that it was Hiram. Not sure if she wanted to answer it, she picked up the phone. "Hello?"

"Hi Rachel," Hiram said.

"Hi," Rachel said. "Look, we're about to leave, so I don't have much time..."

"Baby, I just want you to know, I'm so sorry this is how you had to find out," Hiram said.

"You could have told me," Rachel said. "Look, we're heading up to Minnesota. It's probably going to be a long plane ride..."

"I just want you to know something," Hiram said. "I didn't want to lie to you about this. I thought you should know the truth. But LeRoy and Shelby insisted that we do things this way."

Was Hiram being honest? Or was this just another way to prove he was a better dad than LeRoy? "Well, do you know my dad's name?"

"I don't," Hiram admitted. "I'm sure he's a good guy though. He did help create you."

Rachel didn't know what to say. "We're leaving for Minnesota soon, Dad. I'll call you later."

"Tell Santos congratulations," Hiram said. "He had a great showing last night."

Rachel managed to smile. "Thanks. I'll tell him." She hung up the phone and went to the plane. She knew Hiram had meant well, but she was still upset about everything.

"Are you okay?" Finn asked Rachel as Rachel sat down next to him.

"I'm holding up," Rachel said. "Finn... please don't tell Matt or Josh or anyone about this. They need us to be at our best..."

"I promise I won't," Finn said. "Are you sure you're okay?"

"I can't believe they lied to me like that," Rachel told Finn.

"That wasn't okay," Finn agreed.

"Shelby said he was a good guy, but this almost makes me wonder if something's being hidden," Rachel admitted. "I mean, lots of adopted kids know that the people they're living with didn't give birth to them."

"What do you mean, hiding something?" Finn asked.

"I don't want to think my dad's some gigolo like Brody," Rachel groaned. "Shelby was auditioning for lots of parts - what if he's some famewhore like Jesse who cares about nothing but himself and is obsessed with winning and tears everyone else down to get what he wants?"

"I don't know for sure, but I like to think he's a good person," Finn said. "I mean, he helped to create you, and you have to get your niceness somewhere."

"You think I'm a nice person?" Rachel asked. She knew she hadn't been particularly nice to Finn over the past few years.

"Of course I do," Finn said.

Rachel smiled at Finn. "Thanks. So, Minnesota next." She wanted to get her mind off things.

"Yeah," Finn said. "We've been playing time zone hopscotch these past few days."

"Hey, this is what it might take," Rachel said.

"Are any polls up yet?" Finn asked. "Matt's probably gotten a bit of a boost from the debate... I mean, he owned it up there."

"Let's take a look," Rachel said, smiling at Finn's optimism. She pulled up her iPad and went to CNN's homepage. The page had an article declaring Matt Santos the winner of the debate.

"Guess they're recognizing facts," Finn said, giving Rachel a half smile.

"Let's check on the polls," Rachel said. She clicked on the poll icon to see who was winning for the nomination. There were seven Democratic candidates - and to her disappointment, Russell was still on top. The numbers glared at her: Russell 29, Santos 21. "Ugh."

"Hey, the gap's closed," Finn said. "Burt said he was in the single digits at first, and there's only eight points separating them... this is the first time he's been behind with more than double digits..."

"Yeah," Rachel said. She still couldn't help but feel some disappointment. Her candidate had given the debate performance of a lifetime last night - and he still wasn't leading the polls? Two blows in less than 24 hours...

"Hey, it's one poll," Finn said. "I doubt everyone's even seen the debate yet. And he's only going to get better."

Rachel gave Finn a hug. "So are you excited for Minnesota?"

"Yeah," Finn said. "As long as you don't make me go shopping at the Mall of America."

"Well, you'd better not make me go on any of the big, scary rides at the indoor amusement park there," Rachel said.

"I guess that's fair," Finn admitted.

"Yeah, that's fair," Rachel giggled.

"Are you ready for our speeches?" Finn asked. He and Rachel had offered to be the staffers to speak at today's rally,

x

The plane ride from Texas to Minnesota was one of the longest so far, going from one of the southernmost states in the country to one of the northernmost. The Mall of America was already being set up for the event. Finn handed out signs to the supporters waiting outside, most of whom were talking about the great performance in the debate yesterday. When Finn got done handing out the signs, he went to the room set aside for the staff, where he noticed a group of senior staff members sitting around a computer. Finn was sure that he heard the Vocal Adrenaline Version of Bohemian Rhapsody coming from the computer. What was going on? Why would they be watching a movie from five years ago?

Finn walked over to the computer. "What's going on?"

"We're just checking out the Vinick rally," Bram said.

Finn looked at the computer. There was Jesse St. James himself, singing Bohemian Rhapsody, with Brody and Sebastian as backup. Wait. This didn't make sense. Did the three of them even know each other? What was going on here? "Holy crap," Finn mumbled.

"Don't worry, you and Rachel are more talented than those three," Josh said.

Finn nodded, but he didn't know what to say. For a brief moment, he wondered what was going on, but then the answer came to him. Coach Sylvester. She was the Vinick campaign manager, after all. And after how she acted when she saw Finn and Rachel in California and the things she'd said on TV, it was clear she had it in for them still. But he couldn't talk about this with the other campaign staff. He couldn't let them think he was still stuck in high school mentally.

"If you and Rachel decide to perform again, our opening performances will be better than his," Ronna said. "Just like our ideas are better, our plans are better, and our candidate's better."

"I actually know those three," Finn said. He didn't want to get into too much detail.

"Are they from your high school too?" Josh asked. He turned to the other staff. "Vinick's campaign manager worked at Finn and Rachel's high school. She's a nutcase."

"Yes, she is," Finn said. "And two of them were in rival glee clubs when I was in high school and the third is someone Rachel knew in college."

"Wow," Otto said.

"Yeah, wow," Finn said.

Rachel came in. "What's going on?"

Finn knew Rachel wouldn't be happy when she saw this. "Sue's not the only Vinick staff member we know."

"Don't tell me LeRoy has decided to become a Vinick supporter," Rachel groaned.

"It's not him," Finn said. "Jesse, Brody and Sebastian were performing at the Vinick rally today."

"Why doesn't it surprise me that they're Republicans?" Rachel asked.

"They performed a weak version of Bohemian Rhapsody," Anna said.

"The version of Don't Stop Believing at our rally was better," Josh said.

"We can do it again today if Rachel wants, to show that we have better performers," Finn said, wondering if he'd spoken too soon.

"Yeah, we can," Rachel said. "Everything counts... we're in a good place after the debate and if we can get our supporters energized... and since Finn and I are speaking at today's rally anyway, we'll be on stage... so we can do it."

"I was really hoping we'd be able to take the top spot after the debate," Josh said.

"Matt looked like a president up there, and Russell looked clueless," Finn said.

"You have to remember, Russell was vice president under Bartlet," Josh reminded Finn and Rachel. "Bartlet was the best president in recent times. That alone is going to make us look good."

"But Bartlet hasn't endorsed Russell," Finn pointed out. That fact made Finn think Russell may not be Bartlet's first choice.

"I'm trying to get his endorsement," Josh said. "I've been talking to him, my friends from my days of interning in the White House have been talking to him."

"Well, we've got to have a good rally today," Finn said. "No doubt Russell's trying to make up for last night today." The points hadn't been what he'd hoped, and now some of his rivals were working on the opposing campaign. Now he was more nervous about possibly saying something stupid.

x

The points had been a disappointment, but Rachel didn't want to make it look like it was upsetting her, especially now that some of her rivals were working on Vinick's campaign. She hadn't been too nervous about speaking, but now she was feeling very nervous. She and Finn had just finished singing Don't Stop Believing and now it was time for them to speak. "Thank you, thank you for the warm welcome," Finn said. "How about last night?"

"I think the winner of the debate was pretty clear," Rachel said. "Don't you?"

The crowd cheered again. "Last night made me so proud to be working for Matt Santos," Finn said. "Can I just say - I completely agree with everything Matt said last night? Why have presidential campaigns become about tearing down your opponents? Why can't they be about showing what you CAN do?"

"We're going to tell you about what Matt can do as president," Rachel said. "There's a plan on his website that's expected to create millions of jobs over the next two years. He has a bill drafted to give to congress for health care to become affordable for everyone. He has plans for the public schools of the country that ensure every child will be meeting their grade level for reading and math. And he advocates to the Supreme Court that everyone can marry the person they love."

"His bills in congress have had some of the most support out of any of the bills," Finn said. "Even in Texas, what's known as a conservative state, he was able to win support. He and my stepfather, Burt Hummel, have been the two congressman who've created the most bipartisan bills out of anyone in congress. For him, this isn't just about party labels. He wants to be the president of everyone and let both sides work together. How many candidates out there think like that?"

"The two of us didn't think we would get this job," Rachel said. "But here we are. Going around the country and getting to talk to so many of you has been the experience of the lifetime. And something that stands out to me is how many different people have been at our events - male, female, black, white, Asian, Hispanic, young, not as young, gay, straight, bi, transgender, cisgender, disabled, able bodied, lower class, middle class, upper class - it's so amazing to see so many different people willing to work together."

"Some candidates have their events by invitation only, but not Matt," Finn said. "Look around you. You're all here, not just because you want to be here, but because we want you here. He cares about you. Each and every one of you. He's fought for you in congress and he'll fight for you as president. Please join us in welcoming the next President of the United States, Matt Santos!"

The crowd cheered as the candidate entered the stage. Finn and Rachel had both been nervous - but they had to admit, what they'd said had been pretty good. Was it possible that some of the cheers were for them, too?

"Thank you, Minnesota," Matt said. "Thank you for being here today. And can I first have some applause for Finn and Rachel? You two were talking about how lucky you are to be working for me, but I hope you know that I'm lucky to have you two."

Finn smiled to Rachel as they went to the side, listening to the applause.

x

There was barely time to rest after the Minneapolis rally. The campaign's next stop was Chicago. To Finn's relief, the comments on the campaign blog about him and Rachel had mostly been complimentary. He was afraid that he'd make a gaffe, but that hadn't been the case.

During the flight from Minneapolis to Chicago, Josh came up to Finn and Rachel. "I was just talking to some of the other senior staff members," Josh said. "I was wondering - do either of you two have any experience with writing songs? We kind of want a campaign theme song - something never heard before, something new and different. The songs we play at rallies are great, but we want something special to us."

Did Finn and Rachel have songwriting experience? To some extent, they did. There had been the songs they'd written in high school... for each other... "We could give it a try," Rachel said.

x

The morning in Chicago was spent canvassing, and then Rachel went to Wrigley Field, where the rally would be held. She had to admit, she liked the idea of writing a campaign theme song. She'd been at the field by herself and tried working on a song, but it didn't feel right. This song didn't feel upbeat enough, so she pushed it aside. She started working on another one, and then Finn came up to her. "What are you up to?"

"Oh, I'm trying to come up with a campaign theme song," Rachel said. "I do have one I'm working on if you want to see it."

"You know I like your songs," Finn said. "Let's see it."

Rachel began singing what she'd written to see what Finn would think.

There's a risk worth taking  
Dreams awaken  
And we'll be making something new  
You've got to follow every dream  
Know where to hide  
In places no one's ever seen  
And you will find  
Show the world just who you are  
A shooting star  
Up up and away  
Cause who you're meant to be  
Is right inside  
Yeah you've just got to believe  
And you will find  
Show the world just who you are  
A shooting star  
Up up and away...  
Everyone will say look at him go  
Everyone will say look at him go  
Everyone will say look at him go  
Up up and away...

"Uh, I don't think that's right," Finn interrupted.

That had been Rachel's fear. "What?"

"Don't take this the wrong way, but that song sounds like it came from a movie for young girls about unrealistic dreams," Finn said. "Remember what Mr. Schue told us when we were writing songs?

"What do you mean?" Rachel asked.

"The best songs come from a place of pain," Finn said. "Remember? And I think a song that comes from a place of pain might be good for this campaign. Our country is in a place of pain right now, but Matt can help the country come back from that and bring it to a place of hope..."

Now that Rachel thought about it, the first song she'd written might be a good one. She was self-conscious about it. She hadn't just been thinking about everything the country had been through - but what she herself had been through. "Well, there is another song I wrote, but I worried it wasn't a good idea..."

"Can I hear it?" Finn asked.

If Rachel could trust anyone, it was Finn. "Okay." She sang the song to Finn, hoping it wasn't too bad.

Break down

Break down

Break down

I was scared to death I was losing my mind

Break down

I couldn't close my eyes I was pacing all night, oh, no,

I think I found the light at the end of the tunnel (and my doubts)

I couldn't find the truth I was going under

But I won't hide inside

I gotta get out, gotta get out, gotta get out, gotta get out

Lonely inside and light the fuse

Light it now, light it now, light it now

And now I will start living today, today, today

I close the door

I got this new beginning and I will fly

I'll fly like a cannonball, like a cannonball, like a cannonball

I'll fly, I'll fly, I'll fly like a cannonball

Freedom

I let go of fear and the peace came quickly

Freedom

I was in the dark and then it hit me

I chose suffering and pain in the falling rain

I know, I gotta get out into the world again

But I won't hide inside

I gotta get out, gotta get out, gotta get out, gotta get out

Lonely inside and light the fuse

Light it now, light it now, light it now

And now I will start living today, today, today

I close the door

I got this new beginning and I will fly

I'll fly like a cannonball, like a cannonball, like a cannonball

I'll fly, I'll fly, I'll fly like a cannonball

Break down

I was scared to death I was losing my mind

Break down

I gotta get out into the world again

And now I will start living today, today, today

I close the door

I got this new beginning and I will fly

I'll fly like a cannonball, like a cannonball, like a cannonball

I'll fly, I'll fly, I'll fly like a cannonball, like a cannonball, like a cannonball

I'll fly, I'll fly, I'll fly like a cannonball

"Wow," Finn said at the end of the song. "That's amazing."

"You like it?" Rachel asked.

"Yeah, it's really good," Finn said. "You have to show it to the senior campaign staff. It's perfect for this campaign. Vinick has us all scared of our country's future... but the light is at the end of the tunnel."

"I don't know," Rachel said. "Thanks for listening though."

x

Finn had loved Rachel's song, but he had some work to do - his usual pre-rally task of handing out Santos signs to the crowd. Wrigley Field was practically filled to capacity. To Finn, there was some significance when it came to Wrigley Field - this was one of the places he'd suggested he and Rachel have their wedding. No matter how much time passed, some things would always remind him of their time together. And Rachel's song hadn't just reminded him of what their country had gone through - it reminded him of what they, Finn and Rachel, Finchel, had gone through.

After handing out the signs, Finn went to the bullpen and looked at the polls. By now, everyone probably had seen the debate, so there was time to catch up. All eight of what were expected to be the reliable poll organizations had updated their results: CNN, CSPAN, ABC, NBC, Fox, Time, The Washington Post and The New York Times. Finn looked through the polls, noticing that while Russell still had a lead, the lead was shrinking. Then he opened the New York Times poll. The name on top shocked him.

Santos 27, Russell 26.

"Rachel!" Finn called out when he saw Rachel coming into the bullpen. "Rachel!"

Rachel came over. "What is it?"

Finn held up his computer to show Rachel. "Look at this!"

Rachel looked at the poll, smiled wide and gave Finn a big hug. "Oh my God! We're on top of a poll!"

"It's only one point, and there's the margin of error - but we're on top!" Finn repeated, hugging Rachel back.

"We've got to go tell him!" Rachel said, grabbing Finn's computer and running to the "candidate bullpen," as it had been designated. "Matt, the New York Times has you up!"

"What?" Matt asked.

"You had 27 percent of the vote in The New York Times' new poll, Russell had 26," Finn announced. "They have you leading a poll for the nomination!"

"Are you two messing with me?" Matt asked.

Rachel handed over the computer. Matt looked at it and then hugged both Finn and Rachel as other campaign members began cheering and hugging as well.

They were leading a poll for the first time. The Santos campaign was making progress. Between the debate, the great rallies and now this poll - there might be a President Santos on January 20, 2017.

And if there was, Finn liked to think he'd had something to do with it.


	8. Smear Tactics

Chapter 8: Smear Tactics

"Hey you," Rachel said as she came into Finn's hotel room in Coral Gables, Florida.

Finn looked over at Rachel. "What's up?"

"Just watching last night's OSU football game," Finn said. "Which is just finishing." As the game finished, Finn noticed an ad in the suggestions bar by the president's YouTube channel, entitled "Eating Disorder" and noted as being posted five minutes ago. "Oh God, the president has a new ad."

"Oh no," Rachel groaned. "What's he have to say this time?"

"It's about eating disorders, apparently," Finn said. He clicked the link, and he was surprised when footage of his candidate speaking at a health care event came up.

"Matt Santos is always talking about health and health care," the voiceover on the ad said. "Well, if he's so into health and health care, then tell us Matt: why don't you talk about how you passed out on the floor during your first year of Congress and that it was because at the time you were suffering from an eating disorder, and there's hospital records to prove it? If Matt Santos can't take care of himself, what makes him think he can take care of America?" Then the president's face appeared on the ad screen, and his smug voice came on. "I'm Arnold Vinick, I can take care of myself and of the country, and I approve this message."

"What a fucking asshole!" Rachel gasped.

Finn looked at Rachel. "I didn't know you had this in you."

"Well, I do when people make things like this," Rachel said. Then again, Sue had spoken out against her and Finn's candidate for hiring staff members with gay relatives, so this shouldn't have been too much of a surprise.

"Hey, he seems to be over the eating disorder," Finn said. "We've seen him eat." He hit the replay button, and paused it when the paperwork came up. How had the president even gotten this paperwork? Finn was sure he'd remembered Burt mentioning to him that one of his colleagues had passed out on the floor during a vote at the time and was later hospitalized... but this was such a low, even for Sue and Vinick. Attacking people for their positions was one thing, but this?

"Holy fucking shit," Rachel snapped. "I can not believe that ad is airing."

"Well, you remember the ads Sue made about Burt," Finn said. "I mean, baboon heart? Calling my mom a donkey?"

"Yeah, but that was a congress election and everyone knew that wasn't true," Rachel said. "You'd think that the president would have more class..."

"We've met him," Finn said. "Like you said, he's a fucking asshole."

"He did get elected president with over 100 more electoral votes than required," Rachel sighed. "Like I said... I thought he had some class..."

"How wrong we were," Finn said. "He'd better not get away with this ad like Kitty got away with the manipulating Marley into having an eating disorder..."

"Yeah," Rachel said. "I mean, Sue did talk about you and me having gay relatives, but at least that's sort of a political stance. How is an eating disorder something you can make an ad out of? President Asshole sounded like he was making fun of it at the end of the ad! 'I'm Arnold Vinick, I can take care of myself AND this country and I approve this message...' How the hell did he even get that paperwork?"

"As much as we dislike it, he is the president," Finn groaned. "He has access to just about everything he wants..."

Finn heard a knock at the door. "Come in." If this was a campaign staff member, they should know about the ad... but what would the candidate himself think when he heard about it?

Josh came into the room. "Hey guys, when the congressman's back from his press conference, he wants to go over the post you guys made for the blog about young people and their involvement in the election..."

Finn looked at Rachel. It seemed like Josh hadn't heard about the ad yet. "The Vinick campaign came out with a new ad..."

"Oh, what do they have to say this time?" Josh asked.

"You'll need to see this one, and you're not going to like it," Finn said. "No one here is."

"Well, what do we like that he does?" Josh asked.

"It's not what you think it is," Rachel said as she pressed the play button. Finn felt just as sick listening to the ad again. He'd always known everyone was fighting some battle. The candidate he was working for to get elected president had battled what could have been a fatal illness. Finn had never seen this coming. What would the American public think when they saw this ad? They'd gotten a bump in the polls, but if the president was willing to shame Matt Santos for having battled an eating disorder, would Russell be willing to do so, too? And what if the voters thought he was incapable?

"Fuck that asshole!" Josh shouted at the end of the ad. He paused. "Wait... Finn, Rachel, you didn't hear that."

"It's fine, Rachel called the president a fucking asshole after we saw the ad," Finn said.

"We all know he is," Josh said.

"So, this is true?" Finn asked. He'd hoped it was a lie of some sort and the paperwork was fake, but Josh's reaction confirmed that it was true. Finn was hoping secretly that it was a different colleague who Burt had been talking about...

"Yes, it's true," Josh said. "He had an eating disorder during his first year of congress. He went to therapy and he's eating normally again..."

"Is he okay?" Rachel asked.

"You guys see him, he eats," Josh said.

Finn didn't know what to say. "Well... he's okay now, I guess..."

"God, Helen's going to be so pissed when she finds out about this," Josh continued. "She hated all the press coverage of the eating disorder after he passed out on the floor... she almost made him leave Congress..."

"But he's okay now?" Rachel asked again.

"He's fine, he went to therapy," Josh said. "Look, this isn't the first time I've been working for a candidate with a complicated health history... you know Bartlet has MS... he covered it up during the campaign and it broke after he was elected. At least we're dealing with this now..."

"So, it was when he first started in congress?" Rachel asked.

"He told me about it when I first approached him to see if he wanted to run for president," Josh admitted. "It took time to adjust to being in congress and holding such a big position... and he stopped eating. He could sometimes go for days at a time without eating. He told me that he always had body image issues. He didn't even tell Helen that he wasn't eating, but then he passed out on the floor and had to spend a few weeks in the hospital. He had to go to counseling to get back to eating again."

Finn didn't know how to respond to that. Could this perhaps ruin the campaign?

"He's not hiding it," Josh continued, sounding like he was trying to reassure himself as much as Finn and Rachel. "There was press coverage when he passed out and was in the hospital... people can find those... he told people that he was getting help and I think he's proven he's overcome it... I'm calling the president's campaign manager!"

"This was probably her idea," Rachel sighed.

"She can't get away with it," Josh said. He picked up his phone and dialed the number, Finn wondering what Sue would say. To no surprise, it sounded like Sue didn't even answer the phone. "Ms. Sylvester, my name is Josh Lyman and I'm Matt Santos's campaign manager. I saw your new ad and let me tell you, this is completely unacceptable. This is smear..."

The door opened, and Matt Santos himself came in. Finn gulped. Of all times. He and Rachel had been the ones who'd found this ad... what if they got in trouble. From the look on Matt's face, he didn't know about the ad.

Luckily, Josh hung up the phone and turned to Matt. "Matt, the president posted a new ad earlier today... and I don't know how to show it to you..."

Rachel gave Finn a nervous look. "What did he say this time?" Matt asked.

"Well..." Josh began. "I'll just show you. There's no good way to let you know about this... and you should probably call Helen and tell her about it before she sees it herself..." He pressed the play button and the ad played. The ad made Finn feel sick even though he'd seen it before.

"Sir, let me tell you, I'll make sure your doctors talk to the media... make sure they know the eating disorder is under control..." Josh said. "But I think you should call Helen and tell her about this."

"Helen's going to be so angry," Matt said. "Vinick should be afraid..."

"I'm sorry," Finn said.

"Sadly, this happens a lot in politics," Josh admitted.

"Doesn't mean it's not upsetting, having dark periods of your life broadcasted for the world to see," Matt admitted. "Male eating disorders are often ignored in society because they think of us as being tough... but they happen. Eating disorders aren't a female problem, they can happen to anyone. I was lucky to get help and go to therapy and get better, but not everyone is. I probably should have talked about it more when I decided to run for president... since there was so much press coverage after I passed out, I figured everyone would know. I was known as that guy on Capitol Hill for a while."

"Hey, this isn't your fault," Finn said. "The president is a jerk, I think we all know that."

Matt's phone started ringing. "Oh no."

"Helen?" Josh asked.

"Yeah, I'll be right back," Matt said. "I think I'll have some explaining to do."

The ad kept playing over and over in Finn's head. He was sure that not only Vinick would use this ad, but the other Democrats in the primaries might use this against them, too. There would probably be lots of articles all over the internet by the end of the day, questioning if Matt Santos was tough enough to be president if he developed an eating disorder while in congress.

x

Rachel lay in her hotel bed, hoping that this would pass. Today's rally had been fun enough, but there was that cloud hanging over everyone's heads. The campaign had issued a statement, but everyone knew this wasn't going to go away. She hadn't looked at any polls since the ad had been posted, and she didn't want to.

She knew that she'd gotten involved with a long shot candidate, but the debate had gone so well and the rallies were going so well. Maybe she shouldn't have let that poll get to her head. It was one poll. They were only one point up in one poll. There was the margin of error...

Still, that ad had crushed her spirit. She was sure it had crushed Finn's as well. She kept going between shock, disbelief, anger and fear. Matt Santos seemed healthy now, but people relapsed. It wasn't just about him as a presidential candidate. This was someone she was growing close to and coming to look up to. This was the person who'd hired both her and Finn, bringing them back together after three years.

She felt horrible for the family too. She was sure that Helen reacted similarly to how she would react if someone put an ad like that about Finn on TV. And the kids. They were too young to really understand what an eating disorder was. They were so innocent... and now they were going to have to learn that their father had battled a potentially fatal disease.

Rachel's thoughts were interrupted when her phone rang. She saw that it was Shelby. If this call had come through a few days ago, Rachel wouldn't have picked it up, but she needed to keep her mind off things. "Hello?"

"Hi," Shelby said.

"Hi," Rachel said. "How are you?"

"I wanted to make sure you were okay," Shelby said. "I know today was a rough day for the campaign..."

"Yeah, it was," Rachel said. After what happened the other day, she wasn't sure if she wanted to be completely vulnerable with Shelby.

"It'll be okay, you'll all be okay," Shelby said. "I'm sure this will pass."

"I hope it will," Rachel said. "He's in good health now, he went to therapy..."

"He's a strong man," Shelby said. "I can tell."

Rachel didn't feel like arguing with Shelby. Rachel now knew from both Santos and Vinick you didn't really know a politician until you really got to know them as a person. "Yeah, he is."

"Rachel, listen," Shelby said. "I'm sorry about our argument the other night..."

"So, are you going to tell me my dad's name?" Rachel asked.

"Rachel..." Shelby began.

"Look Shelby, I appreciate you calling to check on me, but it was a long day and I'm really not in the mood to argue with you right now," Rachel said. "Unless you're going to tell me my dad's name, I really don't feel like talking about this particular subject."

"I hope you know, I'm only not telling because it would complicate things too much," Shelby said. "You have so much on your plate right now, and it would be confusing for you, to say the least. He has a life. He's married to the woman he loved even when he and I were dating, and they have a son and a daughter..."

Well, there was a piece of information that Rachel didn't have earlier. She had a brother and a sister. "Shelby, I'm tired, it was a long day," Rachel said. "Thanks for checking up on me." Maybe it was for the better that she didn't know her father's identity anyway. Even though she talked to Shelby now, it was more of a friendship and mentor type relationship than a mother/daughter relationship. If her biological father had two kids of his own, she probably wouldn't have a father/daughter bond with him either, even if she did meet him.

Rachel went next door to Finn's room. She knocked on the door, hoping he'd answer. Sure enough, Finn came to the door. "Hey. Having trouble sleeping?"

"Yeah," Rachel said.

"Me too," Finn said. "But we're going across the country tomorrow, so we probably should be sleeping."

"I just hope things are okay," Rachel said.

"Me too," Finn sighed. "He seems so strong... I know he went to therapy, but he could relapse..."

"We can just hope the press doesn't give us a hard time about this, because I'm sure Vinick and Sue are getting a kick out of it," Rachel said. "I was just thinking... this has got to be humiliating, bring back bad memories, not just for him, but for Helen and the kids. We were just playing with the kids the other day... they're so young..."

"I know," Finn said.

"Speaking of kids, Shelby called to check on me," Rachel said. "I didn't get her to tell me my dad's name yet, but she did tell me that he has a son and a daughter."

"So you have a brother and sister," Finn said.

"Yeah," Rachel said. She'd been wondering about her siblings' genders - now she knew.

x

The flight from Florida to Montana was very quiet. Rachel wanted to say something to Finn to break the tension, but no one else was talking. The communication director said that newspapers and magazines from all over the country were calling to ask about the eating disorder. That wasn't a surprise, but it was still a reminder. One of Matt's friends from the Marines who lived in Florida had offered to fly the plane today, and Helen and the kids had come out. The kids were sitting with Finn and Rachel in the front of the plane, watching a movie after Finn and Rachel offered to hang out with them so their parents could be together.

"Is my dad okay?" Peter asked Finn, seemingly out of nowhere. "Mom said we came because he needs us."

Rachel looked at Finn. "Yeah, he's fine," Finn said. "The president's just being mean because he was sick a few years ago."

"Yeah, I remember," Peter said. "He was in the hospital. Mom wouldn't let us see him, just talk to him on the phone."

"Why's the president being mean?" Miranda asked. "Being sick isn't fun."

"The president isn't very nice," Rachel admitted.

"Then he shouldn't be president," Peter said.

"We're doing everything we can to get your dad elected president instead," Finn said, forcing a smile.

"Enjoying the movie?" Helen asked as she and Matt came over.

"Yeah," Peter said.

"So, this is state #29, I heard," Helen said to Finn and Rachel. "You guys are going to have all 50 states covered."

"That's the goal," Finn said.

"I'm going to steal these two for a minute," Helen said. "I know Matt wanted to look at the entry you two wrote for the blog."

"Yeah, it kind of got pushed aside with everything that happened yesterday," Rachel said.

"Can we finish the movie after he reads it?" Miranda asked.

"Yeah, of course," Rachel said.

"You're really good with the kids," Finn whispered to Rachel. "Whoever your little brother and sister are... they'd be lucky to have you in their lives."

"I do want to meet them," Rachel admitted.

"How's our blog?" Finn asked.

"It's good," Matt said. "You guys can publish it."

"Your health is normal now, right?" Rachel asked.

"I wouldn't be running for president if I wasn't in good health," Matt said. "And don't worry, I won't ask you two to write anything for the blog about this. I'll handle anything about the eating disorder."

"Okay," Rachel said.

"And about today's rally," Matt continued. "With everything that happened yesterday, I forgot to ask: Rachel, do you think you'd like to perform Cannonball, that song you wrote at the rally? Finn showed it to Josh and me..."

Rachel didn't know what to say. Finn had shown them the song? "I hope you're not mad," Finn said. "I just thought it would be perfect for the campaign, and I know you were a bit hesitant..."

"Yeah," Rachel said. "Yeah, I'd love to." She gave Finn a smile to thank him.


	9. A Lot Of Fight Left

Chapter 9: A Lot of Fight Left

Finn felt his phone vibrating and saw that it was Burt. He picked up the phone. "Hello?"

"Hey Finn," Burt said. "How are you doing?"

"I'm doing fine," Finn said.

"Are you guys okay?" Burt asked. "Is Matt okay? I saw the new ad..."

The ad had certainly circulated fast. "We're all hanging in there. It upset him, I could tell... but at least he had Helen and the kids with him for a little."

"That's good," Burt said. "Hey, I was wondering, do you guys have anything lined up for a week from today?"

Finn looked at the calendar. "Actually, we don't yet..."

"I just booked OSU for the day for one of my rallies for my race for Senate, and I was thinking, how about a combined appearance?" Burt asked. "Ohio's a pretty important state in the general. Plus, it would be nice to see you."

Finn liked that idea. "Yeah, I'll talk to him. I do miss you and Mom and Kurt."

"It's so odd not having both of you here," Burt said. "At least we have social media to keep up with you."

"Yeah," Finn said. "I'm sorry I haven't been calling more... I try to call when I can, but sometimes I'm just so tired."

"You're helping with a presidential campaign, you're allowed to be tired," Burt said. "Just think: when all this is over, you'll be able to say you worked for the President of the United States."

Finn smiled to himself. He definitely liked the sound of that. "I hope..."

"You will," Burt said. "I know you and I know Rachel and I know Matt."

"The ad definitely took its toll on us," Finn admitted. "We had rallies yesterday and today, but I could tell he didn't even have the energy he usually does in his speeches."

"What the president did was not okay," Burt said. "You remember I told you and your mom and Kurt about it at the time. He's always been thin, but he was even more thin back then. We definitely bonded as new members of congress and I would notice how he'd never go out for lunch with the rest of us, but I hoped that meant he wanted to eat in his office or something. When he passed out on the floor before the vote, I even think some of the Republicans were upset."

"He seems okay now," Finn said. "I mean, I see him eat..."

"He is fine now," Burt said. "My point is, what the president did wasn't okay."

"Josh called up the campaign and we still haven't gotten an apology," Finn admitted. "Sadly, I don't think Vinick and Sue are capable of apologizing."

"We both know both of them," Burt admitted. "But I also know Matt. You know he's one of my closest friends in congress. He'll come back from this."

"Yeah," Finn said. "Look, I'll see about the rally in Ohio, but I really like that idea."

"Thanks Finn," Burt said. "I'll talk to you soon, okay?"

"Okay, let me know," Burt said, hanging up the phone as Rachel came in. "Hey Rach."

"Bad news," Rachel groaned as she handed the computer to Finn.

Finn took a look at the polls. The one point lead was gone in the New York Times poll. Russell once again had the lead in all the polls - and in some of the polls, the governor of Pennsylvania, Eric Baker, was in second place. "What the heck? Our candidate has the best policies, it was the consensus that he said the best things at the debate..."

"You and I both know what this is about," Rachel groaned.

"You think we can't find a million things that are wrong with Vinick?" Finn asked. "There's things that are wrong with the other Democrats, too, I'm sure..."

"Yeah," Rachel said. "We start working to come back right now."

"Well, there is another debate in a few weeks," Finn said. "And Burt actually just called. He was hoping we could have a joint appearance at his rally for Senate at OSU next week. I was looking at the calendar, and we don't have anything set up for that day..."

"Yeah, that sounds good," Rachel said. Then she paused. "Do your parents know that I'm working on the campaign, too?"

"Yeah, of course they do," Finn said.

"Are they okay with it?" Rachel asked. "I mean, I know I'm not exactly Miss Popular with our group from high school after how I disappeared after That's So Rachel..."

"Of course they are," Finn said. "Besides, it's not like I can judge you. I'm the one who told you no contact..." It was spending all this time with Rachel that made him realize how much he'd missed her. He shouldn't have told her no contact.

"Yeah, but I just disappeared," Rachel said. Finn noticed how worried Rachel looked and he just wanted to hug her and tell her that it would be okay. "Do you think he'll bring Kurt with him?"

"I don't know," Finn said. "I know Kurt's doing as much as he can for Burt from New York, since I can't do much with all my work here."

"True," Rachel said. "Maybe if he does, Kurt and I could talk... I miss him."

"I'm sure he'd be willing to talk to you," Finn said. "Even if he wouldn't, I'd talk to him."

"I actually was going to tell you, in light of the ad and the new polls, I had a song in mind for today's rally," Rachel said, showing Finn the music for the song she'd picked out.

Finn looked. "Yeah, that's perfect."

x

Rachel didn't want to show Finn how nervous she was about seeing his family again at the event next week. It turned out that the campaign thought it would be great to do some campaigning for Burt. Rachel missed Burt and Carole, but she remembered how Tina had acted at the New York rally, and it was possible that even though Kurt hadn't acted that way, he, Burt and Carole might resent Rachel for hurting Finn the fall after they graduated, then completely dropping out of their lives.

"Want to go pick up the stuff for today's event?" Finn asked, interrupting Rachel's thoughts.

"Yeah, let's go," Rachel said, secretly hoping today's event would go well. The crowds were still enthusiastic, but every time the media contacted the campaign, questions about the eating disorder seemed to come in.

Finn and Rachel walked into Josh's suite, where Josh was watching TV with a blond woman Finn and Rachel hadn't seen before. "Our country is stronger and healthier than it's been in years," Vinick was saying on the TV.

"Holy crap," Rachel thought out loud. "Is he saying what I think he's saying?"

"I really hope not," Josh said.

"But there's still a lot of work to be done," Vinick continued. "And it's important that each and every one of us not only do what we can to take care of our country, but do what we can to take care of ourselves."

"He's actually doing this," Finn said. "The whole 'I can take care of myself and of the country' thing..."

"Thank you all for being here today," Vinick said. "It's because of all of you that our country is in such great shape."

"Not only is he a jerk, he's an idiot," Rachel said. "Our country's in worse shape than it was under Ritchie!"

"And let's all get going now, because I'm really hungry, so I'm going to go have a nice big lunch!" Vinick declared as the crowd cheered and laughed.

"Go to hell!" Josh shouted at the TV. He looked at Finn and Rachel. "Oh no, you heard me do that again."

"You think we don't think that all the time?" Finn asked.

"He's prone to that," the woman said. "I'm Donna Moss, Josh's fiancé. You're the aides who also perform at the rallies, right?"

"Yes we are," Rachel said. "I'm Rachel Berry. This is Finn Hudson."

"Nice to meet you," Donna said. "Josh and I were actually hoping you two would sing at our wedding."

A wedding? Rachel's mind flashed back to her and Finn's almost wedding, then Mr. Schue's almost wedding.

"That would be great," Finn said.

"Good," Josh said. "We were hoping for a White House wedding since we met when we were on the staff at the White House under Bartlet, but I doubt Vinick would let us..."

That made Rachel think. She and Finn had reunited because of the campaign... if there was a Santos presidency, would he possibly let them have a wedding at the White House? Rachel stopped herself. She was getting too ahead of herself. She and Finn weren't even back together. "Speaking of the president, that speech was out of line."

"What doesn't he do that's out of line?" Josh asked. "The campaign's communications director called me to say that he pulled the eating disorder ad from the lineup, and literally ten minutes after I hung up with him, he apparently got fired."

"What?" Rachel asked. "That's not right. I mean, Finn and I were just looking at polls. That ad is making us slip! This is about his personal health and it's a private issue. It has nothing to do with how he'll govern."

"Yeah," Finn added. "If someone made fun of Vinick the way he was making fun of Matt in his speech just now, the secret service would come after them and he'd throw a fit."

"Matt's not going to talk about that speech, I know him," Josh said. "He's always trying to avoid being negative."

"True," Rachel said. "We just need to get ourselves back up in the polls. The Iowa Caucus is less than two months away."

"Do you think he saw that speech?" Finn asked.

"I don't know," Josh admitted. "He was looking at some ads with the communications team. We released a statement about the eating disorder to the press where we talked about how much better health he's in now. The best we can do is hope for this to pass. You two have a song picked out for today's rally?"

"Yeah, and it's on the campaign's playlist," Rachel said.

"Great," Josh said as Matt came in. He turned to Matt. "How are the new ads?"

"I think they're good," Matt said. "Helen texted me to say the president is apparently really hungry, so he's off to have a really big lunch..."

"I'm sorry," Josh said. "The best you can do is not let it get to you."

"I have a feeling Sue Sylvester came up with at least some of those things," Finn said.

"I know that I'm healthy now and gained back the weight I lost, but it still hurts to have him saying those things," Matt said. "One of the hardest things about being in my position is when people say these things, you have to act like they don't hurt you, but they do."

"I'm sorry," Rachel said. She thought she knew what it was like to be made fun of, but compared to having a health issue made fun of on national television, the slushies and name calling were nothing. Even the criticism of That's So Rachel wasn't like this.

"Anyway, we have a rally to get to," Matt said. "Let's see if Charleston's ready for us."

"Yeah," Rachel said. "Let's do this." She and Finn stepped on to the stage for today's performance.

Rachel: Like a small boat  
On the ocean  
Sending big waves Into motion  
Just like how a single word  
Can make a heart open  
I might only have one match  
But I can make an explosion  
Finn: And all those things I didn't say  
Wrecking balls inside my brain  
I will scream them loud tonight  
Can you hear my voice this time  
Finn and Rachel: This is my fight song  
Take back my life song  
Prove I'm alright song  
My power's turned on  
(Starting right now) I'll be strong  
I'll play my fight song  
And I don't really care if nobody else believes  
'Cause I've still got a lot of fight left in me  
Finn: Losing friends and I'm chasing sleep  
Everybody's worried about me  
In too deep  
Say I'm in too deep (Rachel: I'm in too deep)  
Rachel: And it's been two years  
I miss my home  
But there's a fire burning in my bones  
And I still believe  
Yeah I still believe  
Finn: And all those things I didn't say  
Wrecking balls inside my brain  
Rachel: I will scream them loud tonight  
Can you hear my voice this time

Finn and Rachel: This is my fight song  
Take back my life song  
Prove I'm alright song  
My power's turned on  
Starting right now I'll be strong  
I'll play my fight song  
And I don't really care if nobody else believes  
'Cause I've still got a lot of fight left in me  
A lot of fight left in me  
Finn: Like a small boat  
On the ocean  
Rachel: Sending big waves  
Into motion  
Finn: Like how a single word  
Can make a heart open  
Rachel: I might only have one match  
But I can make an explosion  
Finn and Rachel: This is my fight song  
Take back my life song  
Prove I'm alright song  
My power's turned on  
Starting right now I'll be strong  
I'll play my fight song  
And I don't really care if nobody else believes  
'Cause I've still got a lot of fight left in me  
Now I've still got a lot of fight left in me

After the song, Finn and Rachel went off to the side and listened to the speech, noticing something different about halfway through.  
"In the first debate, I suggested that rather than tearing our opponents down, those of us running for president should build ourselves up, but that hasn't been the case," Matt said. "Over the past few days, there has been a lot of talk about the eating disorder I suffered during my first year of congress. Let me start off by saying that it has nothing to do with what type of president I'd be. I've seen doctors and been to therapy. I'd say that I was surprised people are talking about it, but I'm not. The fact is, every single one of us is fighting a battle with ourselves, a battle that most people around us know nothing about. Some of us talk about it. Some of us don't. We live in a stressful world that stresses perfection. It's easy to feel like you're not good enough. In an effort to feel better about themselves, some people tear others down. I'm not perfect. I'm not a perfect person and I'm not going to be a perfect president. I'll do the best that I can, but I know I will make mistakes. My point is - whether it's in our personal lives or in our professional lives, we all have faults, and if we say we don't, that's dishonest. It's okay to not be perfect. It's okay to not get a perfect score on every test or to lose a few games here and there. But bringing attention to others' imperfections isn't going to make yours go away. I know that I have a lot of fight left in me."

The crowd applauded, probably the loudest a crowd had ever applauded at a speech. Finn looked over at Rachel and smiled, and Rachel smiled back.

x

The day of the rally with the combined appearance with Burt was today and to say Rachel was nervous would be an understatement.

Kurt had been her best friend in high school, but they'd definitely had their ups and downs. Right before Rachel had left for LA, she and Kurt had gotten into an argument about him feeling like she wasn't loyal enough to her. Then she cut off all communication with everyone after That's So Rachel flopped.

"You okay?" Finn asked.

"Just nervous about seeing your family," Rachel admitted. The Santos campaign was already at OSU, waiting in the locker room for the Hummel campaign to arrive.

"It's going to be okay," Finn said.

A few moments later, Burt, Carole, Kurt and Blaine came in. Rachel gulped. She had sort of expected Kurt to show up, but definitely not Blaine.

"Rachel!" Carole said, giving Rachel a hug. "We've missed you."

Rachel smiled. "I missed you guys too."

"Finn's not giving you too hard a time, is he?" Burt asked.

"No," Rachel said. "It's been a lot of fun working with him."

"I like working with her too," Finn said. "We've been having fun."

"Maybe the four of you could do a song together today," Carole said, motioning toward Finn, Rachel, Kurt and Blaine.

"Yeah, that might be fun," Finn said. "The four of us haven't gotten to do a quartet."

"I'm going to go check with Matt about today's events," Burt said. "I'll be right back. Good to see you again, Rachel."

"You too," Rachel said. After Burt and Carole left, Rachel tried to think of the right things to say to Kurt and Blaine. "So, when's the wedding going to be?"

"We're thinking after Blaine graduates from NYADA," Kurt said. "I wanted you to be in it, but then you just disappeared..."

Rachel had hoped to be in the wedding, too. "I'm sorry."

"Why did you disappear like that?" Blaine asked. "I mean, deleting all your social networking accounts, changing your number..."

"You guys saw That's So Rachel," Rachel admitted. "I was humiliated. I didn't think you guys would want to be affiliated with me after that."

"Is that what you really thought?" Kurt asked.

"Yeah," Rachel admitted.

"Rachel, we're your friends," Blaine said. "We were worried about you."

"So was I," Finn said. "When they told me you deleted everything... I didn't know what that meant."

"I also didn't want people to find me," Rachel said. "I was honestly surprised I got this job. I couldn't even get jobs busing tables."

"Well, that's those employers' loss," Kurt said. "You're happy here, right?"

"Yeah, I am," Rachel said.

"We've been having a lot of fun," Finn added. "Getting to see the country and talk to all sorts of people has been awesome. The other campaign staff is fun to be with."

"So, what's the presidential candidate like?" Blaine asked. "Besides very good looking..."

Kurt slapped Blaine's wrist. "Hey, you're marrying me!"

Finn and Rachel both laughed. "He's a nice guy," Rachel said. "He'll be a great president, but he's a great boss too. Really easy to go to."

"I can't believe Russell's still leading the polls and not him," Blaine said.

"Well, until that ad the president made aired, he was well on his way to the lead," Finn said. "We'll just need to get that lead back."

"Seriously guys, I am sorry I disappeared like that," Rachel said. "I really missed you."

"We missed you too," Kurt said. "You shouldn't have thought we wouldn't be your friends anymore."

"Thanks," Rachel said. "How's New York?"

"Not quite the same without you there," Kurt said. "We did all meet up in front of the loft like you suggested, but we missed you. I can't believe I'm going to graduate from NYADA in the spring."

"He has a job offer from Vogue for after graduation," Blaine announced.

"What?" Finn asked. "Kurt, why didn't you tell me that?"

"I was going to tell you, but someone beat me to it," Kurt said.

"I'm so happy for you," Rachel said. She remembered how much Kurt had enjoyed working at Vogue when they lived in the loft together.

Burt and Carole came back in with Matt. "Matt, you may remember my son Kurt from the congress dinner," Burt said. "And this is his fiance, Blaine."

"Even more attractive in person," Blaine said, smirking at Kurt.

"Blaine, stop it!" Kurt said before turning to Matt. "Nice to see you again, sir."

"And it is nice to meet you," Blaine added. "Hope Finn and Rachel haven't been too much of a pain." He winked at Finn and Rachel.

"Eh, they're not bad," Matt laughed, shaking hands with Kurt and Blaine. "Thanks for coming today."

"Of course, we're doing what we can to get you president and Burt in the Senate," Blaine said.

x

A few hours later, Finn, Rachel, Kurt and Blaine were on the stage together for their first performance together in years. Finn knew that Rachel had been nervous about seeing Kurt and Blaine again after all these years, so he was glad that things had gone well. He'd always wanted to do a fun quartet with Rachel, Kurt and Blaine and he had to admit - all four of their voices sounded amazing together.

Rachel: I been knocking on the door that holds the throne

I been looking for the map that leads me home

Finn: I been stumbling on good hearts turned to stone

The road of good intentions has gone dry as a bone

Finn and Rachel: We take care of our own

We take care of our own

Wherever this flag's flown

We take care of our own

Kurt: From Chicago to New Orleans, from the muscle to the bone

From the shotgun shack to the Superdome

Blaine: There ain't no help, the cavalry stayed home

There ain't no one hearing the bugle blowin'

Kurt and Blaine: We take care of our own

We take care of our own

Wherever this flag's flown

We take care of our own

Kurt: Where're the eyes, the eyes with the will to see

Blaine: Where're the hearts that run over with mercy

Finn: Where's the love that has not forsaken me

Rachel: Where's the work that set my hands, my soul free

Kurt and Rachel: Where's the spirit that'll reign, reign over me

Finn and Kurt: Where's the promise from sea to the shining sea

Finn and Blaine: Where's the promise from sea to the shining sea

Finn: Wherever this flag is flown

Blaine: Wherever this flag is flown

Kurt: Wherever this flag is flown

Rachel: We take care of our own

Finn: We take care of our own

Rachel: Wherever this flag's flown

Kurt: We take care of our own

Blaine: We take care of our own

Finn, Rachel, Kurt and Blaine: We take care of our own

Wherever this flag's flown

We take care of our own

The audience applauded at the end of the song, and Finn saw Rachel hugging both Kurt and Blaine. He smiled as he walked off the stage with Rachel, Kurt and Blaine as a few local politicians came on stage to talk before Burt and Matt's speeches.

"That was good," Rachel said as they waited for Burt and Matt to speak. "I'm glad my voice still sounds good with Kurt's and Blaine's."

"Of course it does!" Finn said.

"It seems like you two are doing really good things for this campaign," Kurt said. "Not just your performances, but I read your blogs all the time..."

"Thanks," Finn said.

"I'm sorry about cutting off contact," Rachel said.

"You don't have to keep apologizing," Blaine said. "Just text us when you can, okay?"

"I will," Rachel said.

Finn, Rachel, Kurt and Blaine continued talking. It felt like the old days, as Finn and Rachel filled in Kurt and Blaine about the campaign staff and the places they'd been, and Kurt and Blaine talked about what was new with everyone in New York.

"And now," the event's MC announced, "please welcome the next President of the United States, Matt Santos, and the next US Senator from Ohio, Burt Hummel!"

Finn, Rachel, Kurt and Blaine joined in the applause. "The two best members of congress," Finn said.

"Hopefully holding higher offices after the election," Kurt added.


End file.
